Your Screen Time is Severely Affecting your Sleep Cycle!
by Shivani Khare on Dec 02, 2021
Assuming that you don’t skip, you come across 120 reels precisely in an hour. Each reel delivers various kinds of content to you. Consuming all sources of information from your screen can be quite overwhelming. It deteriorates our attention span and leads to an irregular sleep cycle.
Your screen time affects you in numerous little ways. It plays a vital role in your health, mentally and physically. Not only does it damage your vision and put a strain on your eyes while you are working on the screen, but it also reflects poorly on your stamina.
A human body requires 6 to 8 hours of sleep to function properly during the day. If the body is not rested, then we may feel weary and exhausted. Some people also get migraines due to lack of sleep and it comes in the way of our quality of life.
How much time do we spend on screen?
From the reports by the National Sleep Foundation, about 90% of Americans often use their phone or laptop before they go to bed. It has become a habit over the course of time to check up on our phones. Let it be our work documents and files or our social platforms to keep up with everyone.
It has been shown that more than 2 hours of screen time during the day can lead to low or disruptive melatonin surge needed for our sleep. It often leads to neurophysiologic arousal that encourages the feeling of alertness. It results in a late-night screen and you end up staying late past your bedtime. It gets tricky and demanding to keep up with your schedule in the morning.
Three-fourth of American children (and adolescents) report having an electronic device in their bedroom at night. Roughly 60% of them use it for an hour at least before they go to bed.
How does screen time affect your brain?
Increasing your screen time can be ailing for your health in different ways. It hinders the development of adolescents and late-teens. Facing sleep problems this early reflects on their health and cognitive development in early stages. Not to forget to mention that adolescent sleep problems appear to precede the emergence of depression. Here are some more illnesses due to a poor sleep schedule and more screen hours,
- Our psychological health depends upon our sleep cycle. It can go both ways since both of them have a great influence on one another. Nevertheless, A well-rested body is much more healthy than we can imagine.
- Our psychological health has several factors within the sleep cycle such as sleep duration, sleep quality, and regularity of sleep. These are all modifiable factors that people can work on. The fluctuation of sleep duration also leads to many diseases.
- It is associated with weight gain, obesity, and adiposity among adults and children. The longer sleep duration disrupts the ratio of BMI. whereas lack of sleep leads to an excess of carbohydrates and fats and more calories.
- Increasing screen hours leads to poor vision. It damages your retina and leads to blurred visions. This eventually leads to Myopia among several adolescents and adults.
- People face chronic neck and back problems. Being on-screen for too long can cause stiffness and pain. It affects your body posture and damages your muscles as well.
Relaxation and Sleep: Vitamin Collection
In our Vitamin Collection, Relaxation and Sleep helps with problems regarding sleep. Without any added drug hangover, it helps in reducing cortisol levels and promotes the feeling of weariness. It is made up of natural extracts of different flowers and essential oils. It also increases the melatonin level in the body to encourage a good quality sleep among adults and adolescents.
Tips on How to Prevent Inadequate Sleep
Our sleep cycle is influenced by various things. All of our small habits contribute to our sleep cycle in one way or another. These habits are modifiable and in our control, if we want to improve our sleep cycle.
- The American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests that no screen devices should be present in children’s bedrooms or their bedrooms at night. Especially before 30 minutes of going to bed.
- Reading often helps people attain the feeling of drowsiness, many doctors suggest reading before bed.
- Avoid exercise before 3 hours of your bedtime.
- You should encourage screen-free days at least once or twice a week to regain your energy without electronics.
- You can also use blue-light-blocking glasses to work without harming your eyesight.
Screen Time affects our sleep cycle and many other aspects of our health. It is crucial that we take care of our sleep cycle - duration, regularity, and quality of sleep. A better sleep cycle helps us in the long run and keeps our body fit. To help teenagers adopt more healthy sleep habits, parents should limit their screen uses as well at night. This encourages nights to be screen-free and leads towards better health.