A heightened need for coffee, contagious yawns, and the notable, blank, soot-eyed, faces: this is invasion of the insomniacs induced by–not brainwashing or mutation, but the corruption of our sleep cycle by bright, active, screens. It’s not just in America either, this phenomena is world-wide. Florence Cardinal, “World of Technology Disrupts Sleep” says in her article, “Children in New Zealand are suffering from sleep deprivation caused by the technological world we live in.” Clearly this is happening almost everywhere for that’s where it’s sources have spread; technology has spread almost everywhere.
“I’m going to bed soon”, we tell ourselves right before finishing “one last text” or “one more episode”. Two hours later, and what has happened? We’ve allowed the lit screen to entrap our attention like a bug drawn to those electric lanterns which end up killing them. Sure, it may seem harmless. Then, as most of us know, after we finally turn off our devices we struggle with falling asleep. It’s one AM, we know we should go to sleep, but lying in bed something about our mind keeps us slightly more alert then we should be. But what is it that flips the switch, turning us into insomniacs? My opinion, supported by studies, is that it’s the disruption of our natural circadian rhythm.
Our circadian rhythm is our body’s natural sleep/awake clock which becomes activated/deactivated through sunlight as controlled by our hypothalamus. It’s how we innately know to wake up in the morning and feel tired at night. When we are exposed to less light, out brain produces the hormone melatonin, which makes us drowsy. Dr. John Herman, a sleep expert at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, reports that “the flashing lights on the games and TV shows may be resetting the circadian rhythm, changing the body’s internal clocks so kids want to stay awake and get up later each day.” This makes sense being that our alertness doesn’t have to be triggered by natural light; often times in our modern world light from man-made sources, such as televisions/computers/cellphones, etc. inhibit the production of melatonin and acts as a “sunlight” which tells our brain it’s time to be awake just when we need malatonin the most.
It may not be all due to corruption of our circadian rhythm, but also the fact that texting and scrolling and watching tv activates our brain, we are processing and thinking when our brain just needs to wind down. This is why many people suggest cutting off technology at least a half-hour before sleep, so our brain and mind are actually ready for sleep when the time come–and we don’t have to go through our next day like a sleep-deprived zombie.
Cite:
http://www.healthcentral.com/sleep-disorders/c/5954/26117/technology?ic=50604
My roommate is addicted to his technology. He sleeps with his phone on and holding it. Once when I was awake studying I saw that he would fall asleep for maybe 15 minutes then wake up to a text message answer it and go back to sleep a few minutes later. He sleeps through a lot of his classes and goes to bed some nights at 5 in the morning. Anyway he should be a case study I think.
I completely get this. At the same time, sometimes when I lay down in bed and mindlessly scroll through my twitter news feed, it actually calms me down. I wonder how this relates to Antarctica/Alaska/etc and the lack of sunlight there. Does a lack of sunlight result in sleepiness all day and night? Also, a lot of elementary schools have “no tv week”. I wonder how this influences the sleeping patterns of the children. How much tv or technological use influences sleep?