The Effects of Technology on Sleep

In this section, you will learn about the effects that your everyday devices have on sleep quality. Handheld devices and personal laptops are commonly used devices. These devices have benefits and challenges when it comes to everyday life.

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Learning Outcome

By the end of this lesson students can identify habits related to their personal laptops and hand-held devices that can be detrimental and beneficial to sleep quality.

Blue Light

It is important to use these devices responsibly if you want to establish a healthy sleeping habit. Electronic devices emit blue light (Silvani, Werder & Perret, 2022). Cultivating Health (2022) defines blue light as a type of visible light that has the shortest wavelength and highest energy. Common light sources that have blue light are sunlight, tablet screens, computer monitors and smartphones.

Blue light was found to suppress “the secretion of the hormone melatonin”. As melatonin is a regulator for the circadian rhythm, blue light can cause a disruption in sleep quality.

Blue light can have benefits and disadvantages to the body in general. The following shows the effects that blue light has on the body:

  • Increases cognitive performance
  • Increases physical performance
  • Increases alertness
  • Suppresses melatonin

Although, it is clear from looking at the effects that blue light can be detrimental a person’s sleeping quality.

It is recommended that blue light should not be used 3 hours before sleep as it will decrease sleep quality (Silvani, Werder & Perret, 2022). It is important that your electronic device does not interfere with your ability to fall asleep.

Sleep and Technology

In order to regulate sleeping habits, technology use should be controlled. Electronic devices are commonly used in households today. Because of blue light, there is a relationship between sleep patterns and screen time. A longer screen time can heavily delay a person’s sleep (Hale et al., 2018). It causes shorter sleeping length and worse sleep quality.

How to Improve My Sleep

With this all in mind these are some recommendations in how to use technology to improve sleep:

  1. Regulate your screen time when nearing your bedtime.
  2. Use your electronic device with lower light screens when using your screen for a long time.
  3. Be purposeful when consuming media before you sleep. Don’t consume media that will give you adrenaline or make you feel alert like doom-scrolling on social media.

With these recommendations in mind. Make sure to check out the video and article below to learn about the blue light and the effects of sleep on technology. As well, complete the quiz below to see how much you have learned from this article.

Interactive Activities:

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Sources:

Silvani, M. I., Werder, R., & Perret, C. (2022). The influence of blue light on sleep, performance and wellbeing in young adults: A systematic review. Frontiers in Physiology, 13, 943108. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.943108

Hale, L., Kirschen, G. W., LeBourgeois, M. K., Gradisar, M., Garrison, M. M., Montgomery-Downs, H., Kirschen, H., McHale, S. M., Chang, A. M., & Buxton, O. M. (2018). Youth Screen Media Habits and Sleep: Sleep-Friendly Screen Behavior Recommendations for Clinicians, Educators, and Parents. Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America, 27(2), 229–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2017.11.014