National Sleep Foundation has conducted a new study that has found a causal effect between using electronics before bed and sleeping problems and here’s what it found:
63% of the 1500+ Americans surveyed (ages 13 to 64) stated that they didn’t feel as though their need for sleep was satisfied.
95% of those same 1500+, said they were on the internet, used text messaging or watched TV at least two or three nights a week, a hour before turning in.
This, from the National Sleep Foundation’s press release:
Artificial light exposure between dusk and the time we go to bed at night suppresses release of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin, enhances alertness and shifts circadian rhythms to a later hour, making it more difficult to fall asleep … This study reveals that light-emitting screens are in heavy use within the pivotal hour before sleep. Invasion of such alerting technologies into the bedroom may contribute to the high proportion of respondents who reported that they routinely get less sleep than they need.
What about light bulbs? Isn’t that artificial light?
That’s it! I’m switching back to candles.
[via The Huffington Post]
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