We’re all guilty it of it; I know that I am.  Every night before I go to sleep I find myself staring at the screen of my cell phone or watching an episode of Gossip Girl.  What many fail to realize is that the screen they are staring at actually disrupts their sleep and has a major effect on their body.  I haven’t gotten enough sleep since August when I started at University Park and I think that I am the only one to blame.   After all, if I just put down my cell phone an hour before I went to bed, I would probably get more sleep. In class, we discussed how lights affect our mood and can also lead to depression. This discussion sparked my interest and I wanted to know how reading on a digital screen that produced some type of light affects both our bodies and sleep?

Whether we know it or not, reading on a screen affects hormones in our brains.  As matter of fact, Dr. Dan Siegel, who is a clinical Professor at UCLA School of Medicine, claims that “exposing our eyes to this stream of photons from the objects is basically telling your  brain to stay awake” ( Gmoser).  He later goes on to say, “that light tells your brain to not create melonie”, this is the hormone that controls your internal clock basically ( Gmoser).  Dr. Siegel’s advice is that we all “give you an hour before you go to bed”, which is easier said than done for many.  

There have been many studies done to prove that reading something that produces digital light before bed affects sleep as well.  A hospital in Boston known as the Brigham and Women’s Hospital studied the “effects of reading an LE- eBook compared to a printed book” (Beres).  They found that “Participants reading an LE-eBook took longer to fall asleep and had reduced evening sleepiness, reduced melatonin secretion, later timing of their circadian clock and reduced next-morning alertness than when reading a printed book” (Beres).  In addition, Anne- Marie Chang, who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Hospital stated that “the body’s natural circadian rhythms were interrupted by the short-wavelength enriched light, otherwise known as blue light, from these electronic devices”( Beres).  Dr. Siegel would agree with the statement made by Dr. Chang that the lights from these devices affect melatonin, which eventually affects our internal clock which causes us to stay up longer and get less sleep.

What we must take into account with the experiment that took place in Boston is the following. First, there could be a third variable that causes the participants who were reading the digital E-books to have a longer time to fall asleep.  This third variable could be that maybe the participant had a glass of coffee about an hour before they went to bed.  Or maybe the participant took a nap mid-day and wasn’t really that tired after they put down their E-book and tried to fall asleep.  Vice versa, those who read the paperback books could have been up the night before till 3 AM doing work and were so tired that they fell right asleep after reading the paperback book.  As you can see, there are many third variables that need to be considered in this study.

What many would never guess is that suppression or elimination of melatonin may also cause things such as obesity, diabetes and other disorders ( Really?).  Dr. Siegel from UCLA brought that up in his video, “sleep allows active neurons to rest,  but more than that the supportive cells called Glial cells are now cleaning up the toxins that the neurons produce. If you don’t get from 7 to 9 hours of sleep, then the toxins remain there.  Without sleep our attention falters, our memory is impaired, your insulin that helps regulate your metabolism is turned upside down so you’re more likely to gain weight from what you eat, and eat more” (Gmoser). Clearly the less sleep we get the more our bodies are affected and if you think about it, reading on these screens before bed is causing us to get less sleep. 

All and all, I think it is very clear that everyone needs to put down their electronics before they go to bed.  Not only does reading on a screen disrupt sleep and cause us to take longer to fall asleep, it also may affect our wellbeing such as weight and cause us to have another disease.  So put the phones, iPad, and Ebooks down.  After all, you can check Facebook tomorrow; it will still be around.

                                                                Works Cited

Beres, Damon. “Reading On A Screen Before Bed Might Be Killing You.”The Huffington

              Post.com, n.d Web 21 Oct. 2015

Gmoser, Justin. “This Is What Happens to Your Brain and Body When You Check Your

Post. The Huffington Post.com, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Phone before Bed.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 17 Feb. 2015. Web. 21

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Really? Using a Computer Before Bed Can Disrupt Sleep.” Well Really Using a Computer
Before Bed Can Disrupt Sleep Comments. N.p., 10 Sept. 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.