Like many people at night, I usually lay awake in the few minutes before I fall asleep scrolling through social media or texting a friend on my phone. Though people may see this time as a “winding down” period, preparing our bodies to fall asleep, it is actually doing quite the opposite. The light from our phones, laptops, tv screens, etc. emit what is known as “blue light”, and research by the National Sleep Foundation indicates that this blue light actually restrains the production of melatonin, the hormone that controls our sleep/wake cycle, known as our circadian rhythm. Not only does being on my phone right before going to sleep biologically make it harder to fall asleep, seeing the highlight reels of people I know on Facebook or reading emails reminding me of tasks to be completed, my mind stays awake, alert, or even stressed. I find myself often getting into bed early enough to get an adequate night of sleep but because my mind stays wired from the blue light on my phone in the half hour or so before trying to fall asleep, it can take me over an hour to fall asleep some nights. Therefore, this week I am trying to limit my time on social media use before going to sleep so that my brain can sufficiently produce melatonin and falling asleep is not an impossible task. Last night, I set a social media time limit on my phone so that by midnight I wouldn’t be able to access social media apps anymore and would be forced to put my phone down for the night. I actually did find success in falling asleep a little after 12am last night and woke up about 8:30, successfully achieving my goal of getting at least 7 hours of sleep (more like 8 to 8 1/2 last night)!
Jamie's Blog of the Journey to Happiness 