I've decided to start turning off my laptop and my iPad at 6pm.
Hmm.
I see it is currently 6:28 pm.
So I'm going to post this, eat dinner, and pick up a book!
Light-emitting e-readers before bedtime can adversely impact sleep
Open the Book, Put Down the Tablet at Bedtime (behind pay wall)
Reading on electronic devices before bedtime can disrupt the body’s circadian clock, making it harder to fall asleep and become alert in the morning, according to a study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness
I've been reading bad reports on eReaders and sleep for a while now, but it was the finding on next-morning alertness that finally got to me. Before I owned a laptop and an iPad, I never had trouble waking up in the morning.
Now I do.
I may have to re-up my subscription to the paper version of The New Yorker.
Lot of these studies about the problems with reading on screens--including amount absorbed and lack of sleep--need to get through to schools that putting everything on electronic media instead of good old books is a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteYes, carrying 3-4 textbooks home every night is like lugging a backpack full of bricks, but there has to be some happy medium out there somewhere.
How much does this have to do with color tint? Several people in my family use f.lux: https://justgetflux.com/ The idea is that a hue shift will help with sleep.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what about the e-ink tools? I can see how reflective screens would be less problematic than an emitting one. ...but then, I wonder, how different is it than reading with lightbulbs and whatnot? Do sunlamps, with the full-spectrum of light, keep us up?
I mean, at some point, we have to acknowledge that inexpensive light is keeping us up later ... something we've known for a long, long time.
~Luke
I just read a hair-raising article in the Times about aging eyes....
ReplyDeleteAs you age, your lens yellows, and blue light can't get through!
Aauuggghhh!
The good part of that, for Luke & all, is that it tells me yellow filters actually work.
Part 2 of the horror: apparently, when people undergo cataract surgery, they are often given new, artificial lenses that block blue light.