Can’t Sleep? Technology is the Culprit
Do you have sleeping problems? You can blame the technology for that.
We use the technology too often and that hurts us, the experts say. The majority of the people can no longer go to sleep or fall asleep without watching TV first. There are also many people who play video games or who stay at the computer until they are tired, and only when they feel that they can no longer sit, they go to bed. In the majority of the cases they do not fall asleep soon, they twist and turn, only to get up, maybe turn on the TV again, or browse the internet from their mobile phones. If this scenario seems familiar, then you should read this. The 2011 Sleep in America poll which was conducted by the National Sleep Foundation revealed the fact that the majority of the Americans who use the technology in an excessive manner have troubles sleeping. The study revealed the fact that 95 percent of the people who participated to the study use the TV, the computer, or the mobile phone with one hour prior to going to bed. That type of behavior or action messes up their internal body clock, and as a result they can no longer fall asleep as fast as they should.
Russell Rosenberg, the vice chairman of the Washington DC-based National Sleep Foundation NSF, said that the majority of the Americans do not sleep as much as they should, which is 7 or 8 hours per night. Even the hours which they spend sleeping are not filled with quality sleep, but with an inconsistent type of sleep. They often get up, they go to the bathroom, they wake up too early, or they wake up sooner than they should. This does not seem to be a very big problem, but the lack of sleep can accumulate over time, and that can lead to unwanted consequences. Rosenberg also stated that that hour prior to going to sleep is very important, and it should not be filled with technology. One should read during that time, or should simply stay relaxed in bed. Sure, those types of technologies are very useful during daytime, as we would not be able to do too many things without them, but they are useless and damaging during the night.
Prior to going to sleep, the brain releases a certain hormone, melatonin, which is similar to a command. That hormone basically tells the body that it is late, and that it is time for sleep. However, when one uses the technology prior to going to sleep, a different hormone is released in the body. Charles Czeisler, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said that by watching TV or playing video games prior to going to sleep, the mind will try to stay awake, and it will actually command the body not to sleep. It will try to make the body be as alert as possible, as it believes that something important is going on. The reason why the brain does that is because of the artificial light emitted by these devices.
