I remember my mom would always yell at me and tell me not to go on my phone before I went to bed. Sometimes she would make me leave it in our kitchen before I would go upstairs (super annoying and embarrassing). I always thought that she did not want me to stay up all night, which is true in a couple of ways.

The Brigham and Women’s Hospital, conducted a study on the affects of reading an LE-ebook verses a regular print book at night. Through the study they found the participants who read with an electronic book at night took longer to fall asleep. Their natural circadian clock, synchronization of naturally feeling tired from environmental cues, were set later along with reduced alertness in the morning. Another affect greatly impacted from this was reduced melatonin at night, which we learned from the mice pop quiz article, is affected by blue lights at night.

Throughout the study, participants were either given an iPad to be on for four hours during five nights in a row before bed, or given a printed book to read. The iPad users experienced feeling less tired in the evening, longer time to fall asleep, and less time sleeping through REM sleep. Even though iPads were only used during the study, it was concluded that anything emitting a blue light like phones, tablets, and LED monitors all give the same affect.

The researchers of these findings urge the importance of the affects because decreased melatonin secretion can lead to multiple cancers such as prostate, breast, and colorectal.

“Since more people are choosing electronic devices for reading, communication, and entertainment, particularly children and adolescents who already experience significant sleep loss, epidemiological research evaluating the long-term consequences of these devices on health and safety is urgently needed.”                         – Charles Czeisler PhD, MD, FRCP, chief, BWH Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders

Dr. Anne-Marie Chang an associate neuroscientist at BWH Division of Sleep and Circadian urges people to stay away from blue-light late at night since it shows a number of problems of  affecting your health. Blue light can also lead to cardiovascular problems, diabetes, and obesity besides causing cancers. She recommends to avoid light-emitting objects, and if you have to use them, use technology that can filter out the blue light.

So what does this mean? Using anything that emits a blue light, which for most of us is our phones, affects our sleep. The affect on our sleep also affects how we are the next day, like our alertness, which I know greatly affects me. So should we be scared that using our phones before bed to catch up on all of our social media will harm our health? Yes and no. Yes because sleep is an important part of our daily routine and is the reason why we have energy and can be alert throughout the day. Even though I am not a scientist, I do not think we all have to be so scared about the severe results like cancers, from using our phones. Based off of all the information, as long as you are smart with how long you are on your phone, and how long before you go to bed, your health should be okay. You should take your own health into consideration and determine what’s best for you. Don’t freak out, just be smart and aware how much more important your health and sleep are than your phone.