Individuals who prefer to wind down using their smartphones before getting their desired shuteye are doing it wrong. Blue light or the short wavelengths that come from screens and monitors can disrupt sleep. Recent studies suggest that watching television and using gadgets such as tablets, smartphones, and laptops a few hours before bedtime throws off a person’s circadian rhythm. Instead of preparing the body for sleep, the combination of blue light and artificial light in the household might cause the body to secrete melatonin, a hormone that is responsible for the body’s waking and sleeping cycles.
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Exposure to blue light at the right time can be helpful. Daytime exposure to blue light along with sunlight can improve a person’s mood. It can also boost focus and maintain the body’s circadian rhythm. And while there truly are early birds who require less sleep and late sleepers who are wired to sleep beyond the usual bedtime, prolonged gadget use before going to bed not only wakes the body up but affects the quality of sleep.
To improve the quality of sleep, experts suggest avoiding the use of blue light-enriched gadgets two to three hours before bedtime. For those who are working late at night, the use of blue light filtering glasses will help maintain their circadian rhythm even with the disruption of gadgets. To fully ease a person back into the right sleeping pattern, the use of dimmers for other lighting at home is also recommended.
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Getting the right sleep is important for people of all ages. For a truly good night’s rest, keep gadgets far away from the bed and turn down the lights.
Dr. Lisa Marie Cannon‘s practice is focused on providing diagnostic, treatment, and management options to patients with pulmonary and respiratory conditions like COPD, tuberculosis, and pneumonia, as well as sleep medicine. Visit this page for more information on these fields.
Dr. Lisa Marie Cannon 
