How Mobile Phones Affect Our Sleep Cycle
Is it just me who waits for the night to fall and gets into bed with my pajamas on? I remember always being excited about bedtime routine in my cozy bed with candles, music and of course… doomscrolling for hours. Little did I know about the harmful effects of late-night social media sessions.
Nowadays, with the increased usage of cell phones before our slumber time, our sleep-wake cycle is highly affected by the blue light emitted from electronic devices. While the screen light does what it's best at, making us alert, it is the harmful content on social media that also evokes negative emotions at our bedtime which forces us to overthink and delays our peaceful night's sleep.
Everything in this world is connected to science, from our bodies to our brains, our relationships to our conflicts, there is no explanation without a scientific reason. Similarly, our circadian rhythms, REM sleep and emotional behavior is all correlated to our slumber time.
Let's talk about the science behind the irregular sleep cycle:
blue light disrupts our circadian rhythm
The increased exposure to blue light affects our internal body clock which further disrupts our circadian rhythm, a 24-hour cycle that follows the physical, mental and behavioral patterns of our body. The sleep-wake cycle (circadian rhythm) is in sync with external cues, like dark and light, which help determine whether one feels awake and exhausted at different times of the day.
The blue light emitted by mobile phones activates the photoreceptors in the brain, suppresses the production of melatonin and boosts alertness, making it difficult to sleep at night. Melatonin is a hormone that acts as a receptor in your body to encourage sleep at later hours of the night. It is present at low levels in our body during the day, but is released after it gets dark signalling us to rest and sleep. When our body doesn’t get enough rest time and runs low on melatonin, then it can experience irritability and health problems.
the social media abyss evokes negative emotion
Imagine, you are about to hit the hay, and your phone screen pings with a social media notification or an aggressive email from your boss. You reach out for your phone, read upsetting content, and then you see yourself awake for the next few hours.
Sometimes it is not just phone screens, but also the harmful and aggressive content we read that needs to be blamed. This is called doomscrolling, the act of scrolling through social media or web surfing and constantly absorbing terrible news that can be harmful to the brain.
Spending those precious hours when you should be asleep consuming negative news alerts your brain to stay awake and evokes negative emotion in your body that strips you of that deep restorative sleep after a tiresome day. What are the consequences of low-quality sleep? It makes you more fatigued and sluggish the next day. Aside from the ramifications of sleep deprivation due to late-night scrolling, it can also cause insomnia and daytime drowsiness.
Nicole Eichelberger, a BSM Certified Sleep Expert gave her useful insight on sleep disturbance by saying, “Almost 62 per cent of millennials check their emails before bed which results in poor sleep. It can further lead to health problems such as high blood pressure, weight gain and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.”
electronic devices reduce the amount of rem sleep
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep can be known by other names like dream sleep, active sleep, desynchronized sleep, paradoxical sleep and rhombencephalic sleep. It is the critical stage at night when you dream and the restoration of your mind and body takes place. REM sleep plays an important role in dreaming, memory emotional processing and healthy brain development. REM usually starts about 90 minutes when your brain activity increases, your eyes dart quickly and your breathing speeds up. It is associated with learning and memory consolidation which is decreased by blue light that affects the psychological issues of your body.
The blue light emitted by electronic devices postpones the effects of REM if continued for a long-term and can lead to difficulty remembering things, reduced ability to learn, decreased attention span during the day, delayed reaction time and sleep deprivation.
As we get ready for the New Year, let’s make a resolution to limit our screen time at least an hour before we go to bed and see how it changes our sleep routine and in turn, how we live our daily lives.
Rashi Agarwal is a freelance journalist who has worked with Daily Express and LBC in the past. She loves to write about lifestyle, relationships, home, family, food and many other beats. You can follow her on Twitter @Rashi_2208