You may not even realize how your mobile phone habit is affecting your sleep and mental health. What may seem like a harmless habit to you, like using your phone while lying in bed at night, can actually have a big impact on your overall health. Your mobile phone rests right next to you every night as you sleep. You answer calls, texts and emails at a moment’s notice. Even at night time you keep using it.
Research in the Journal of Sleep Research examined how sleep can be affected by media consumption—such as watching movies, television, or YouTube videos, browsing the Internet before bed, or listening to music. According to this study, media consumption before bed may not affect sleep quality, but if you are going to consume media, such as watching TV or listening to music, before bed, limit the time to No negative consequences were experienced in sleep.
Table of Contents
1. Does the use of mobile phones disturb sleep?
1. Using a mobile phone keeps your mind mentally busy
2. Blue light from screens suppresses melatonin
3. Continuous use of mobile phone delays sleep
2. Tips for better sleep without a mobile phone
1. Does the use of mobile phones disturb sleep?
Throws some light on sleep disorders and sleep-disrupting habits.
1. Using a mobile phone keeps your mind mentally busy
Mobile phones were designed to make our lives easier. They are designed to entertain and inform us. But when it’s time to turn off the lights and go to bed, the last thing our minds need is more information and more entertainment. Experts say that checking your mobile phone keeps the brain active, even just glancing at the mobile phone can distract your mind and delay sleep.
What can make this habit worse is feeling the need to constantly be online. Doctors caution against the idea that you should avoid responding, posting or scrolling immediately. The age of mobile phones has made us feel like we can’t really log off even when we sleep.
Your brain can stay active and busy for a long time after you scroll through Instagram or answer a few work emails. Going to bed and falling asleep should be a peaceful, pleasant and relaxing feeling. Engaging with your phone too close to bedtime can negatively impact these feelings.
2. Blue light from screens suppresses melatonin
The blue light emitted by your mobile phone is not only bad for your eyes, but it is also bad for your brain. Research has found a link between suppressed levels of melatonin and blue light. Melatonin is a hormone that helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle. So when your body runs low on it, you may experience feelings of insomnia, daytime fatigue, and irritability.
Your mobile phone’s blue light is an artificial color that mimics daylight. It can be great during the day because it can help you feel more alert, but using it at night is dangerous. This is why you feel more tired at night when the sun starts to set and why you feel more energetic when the morning is light.
3. Continuous use of mobile phone delays sleep
Experts say that checking your mobile phone before bed can lead to distracting emotions, thoughts and anxiety. Everything about your mobile phone is meant to make your life easier and entertain you, but it’s really bad for your health to use it before you go to bed at night. It distracts you, wakes you up, and prompts your mind to keep working. And delays sleep.
2. Tips for better sleep without a mobile phone
If you’re used to looking at your mobile phone at night, it’s important to set some ground rules for use around bedtime. Doctors recommend reducing screen time to an hour before bed, but say there are benefits to turning it off just thirty minutes before bed, and of course smartphones are usually our main culprits, but even Tablets and TVs can also emit blue light that can have harmful effects on sleep.
It is important to establish a comfortable bedtime routine and eliminate activities that may cause anxiety or high emotional response. If you’re really trying to cut down on mobile time before bed, put your phone in another room or on your bedside table and try setting an alarm on the clock. Your phone also has options to reduce notifications, such as setting it to night mode, which can help you turn on snooze mode.