Stop Ruining Your Sleep By Watching Screens Before Bed #4 Dr Dani's Health Tips
Welcome to part 4 of my 7 part series telling you my top 7 simplest ways to get healthy now. in this video I'll talk about how shutting off electronic devices and screens at least 2 hours before bedtime will help you sleep better.
Computer screens, iPhones, TVs and other electronic screens emit a wavelength of light that shuts off Melatonin production in your brain. Melatonin is your sleep hormone--you need your body to be making this hormone in the evenings in order for you to get a really good restful sleep. If your melatonin production gets turned off, sleep problems and insomnia ensue. This leads to trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep. In addition to the light issue, working on the computer at night keeps your mind OVERACTIVE and in 'work mode' when you should be settling down to prepare for rest and for sleep. Although watching TV may let you 'zone out' and this may feel relaxing, you are not actually relaxing the mind, merely DISTRACTING IT, as well as DISRUPTING MELATONIN. In my experience treating insomnia, shutting off screens 2 hours before bed along with getting to sleep by 11pm cures a good majority of run-of-the-mill insomnia that I see. Sleep researchers have proved that blue light, the type of light given off by computer and TV screens decreases your melatonin peak at night and causes problems sleeping, leading to being tired and irritable during the day! Sleep problems and not getting a good sleep also has been proven to make it harder to LOSE WEIGHT!
I know when I break this rule myself, staying up on my computer or watching a movie before bed, I always have trouble falling asleep, and tend to feel tired and less 'refreshed' in the morning too. I have learned that although late-night movies in bed always seem like a good idea to 'unwind' I just end up paying for it with a bad sleep and being grumpy in the morning!