Gadgets Interfere with People’s sleep

Added by David Sandercock on March 8, 2011

People in the US are loosing sleep because of their gadgets, a recent study say.

A National Sleep Foundation poll has found that some five percent of those surveyed play video games, watch television, or use laptop computers or smartphones in the hour before going to bed.

Harvard Medical School doctor Charles Czeisler said the effect of using gadgets with light-emitting screens just before going to bed could be significant. “Invasion of such alerting technologies into the bedroom may contribute to the high proportion of respondents who reported that they routinely get less sleep than they need.”

43 per cent of people in the ages 13 to 64 reported that they “rarely or never” got a decent night’s sleep during the week, according to the survey which was released on Monday.

Czeisler explained that these monitors or screens suppress the release of melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone, therefore enhancing alertness.

Smartphones, computers as well as video games are suspected to be more stimulating, and therefore even more disruptive, than passive TV watching.

In addition, “The higher use of these potentially more sleep-disruptive technologies among younger generations may have serious consequences for physical health, cognitive development and other measures of wellbeing,” said Lauren Hale from Stony Brook University Medical Center.