Want better sleep? Ditch the phone
Emma Duke, Staff Writer & Keo Bunny, Features Editor
How many times do you pull out your cell phone a day? How about at night? It’s easy to lose track of time as you scroll through Twitter or Instagram but the effects may extend further than just being sleepy in your morning classes the next day. The blue lights radiating off your phone screen may be detrimental to more than your sleep, it could also affect your physical well-being, exposing you to a host of chronic issues.
We sleep every night and scroll our phones everyday. When these two things collide and we use our phones before sleeping or in bed, our quality of sleep may decline. Perhaps, to better our sleep, we need to understand it better first.
Why do we need to sleep?
Simply put, if we don’t, we’ll get tired. But if you’re looking for a deeper explanation, the Canadian public health campaign on sleep, “Sleep on it!”, states “Sleep plays a role in the preservation of the immune system and helps to regulate almost all the functions of our body…” The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute also says that “sleep deficiency is linked to many chronic health problems, including heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke obesity, and depression.” We need it to survive and without it, we wouldn’t be able to function properly, much less pay attention in our classes.
How do cell phones affect sleep?
Living in a world where phone usage is the norm, it’s no surprise that we use cell phones constantly. I’m no stranger to the, “just one more video” mindset and apparently lots of people think similarly. With the prevalence of TikTok and other social media sites, it’s no surprise that a study published in 2018 states that 70 per cent of their participants use their cell phones when they’ve already gotten into bed. If that was a stat from 2018, I can’t imagine how much bigger the numbers have grown.
But we use cell phones all the time in the day, what’s so bad about it in the night time? You’ve probably heard that cell phones are bad for your sleep but it’s not just lights from cell phones, tablets, computers or even wearable devices. As we’re washed over with the abundance of information from what we’re scrolling through, the blue light that comes from these screens can delay how fast we can get to sleep.
“…the blue light emitted from electronic screens has the greatest impact on sleep. Blue light stimulates the parts of the brain that makes us feel alert, leaving us energized at bedtime when we should be winding down,” the fact-checked Sleep Foundation article said.
Not only does smartphone usage mess with the circadian rhythm, it actually also suppresses our melatonin which also contributes to the cycle. Melatonin is a hormone our body naturally creates that essentially tells us when it’s time to go to bed. When we stare at our phone screens at night, it delays our melatonin production which in turn makes it harder to sleep. Northwestern Medicine, a hospital network in the US, asserts that aside from fatigue, the risks associated with disrupting your sleep may include: obesity, heart attacks and types of cancers.
Let’s back up a minute. I’m not saying to toss your phone down the toilet and forget about it – that’s not realistic. We live in a connected world, in fact, Statistica says that almost 90 per cent of Canadians are connected to social media. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least try to lessen our cell phone usage.
The Sleep Foundation recommends putting electronic devices away 30 minutes before bed and doing something relaxing. In fact, a study from 2021 concluded that reading in bed will improve your sleep quality. Other relaxing methods could include journaling, listening to an audiobook or even taking a warm shower or bath to lower your body temperature. Having consistent times to wake up and go to sleep will also contribute to getting a better sleep as well.
I hope you take something away from this article, even if it’s small. After all, we spend so much of our lives sleeping, maybe we should at least start learning how to do it properly.
