How Technology Affects Sleep

I think we can all say that we've stayed up later than we'd planned to on our phones, TVs, iPads etc. before and didn't have a good sleep because of it. It may not seem like such a big deal to get a little screen time in before bed, until you realize just how much exposure you get to it everyday. Technology affects your sleep in a lot of negative ways. It disrupts your sleeping patterns, keeps your brain alert, and wakes you up.
Melatonin is a natural hormone made in your body’s pineal gland, and released into your bloodstream to make you feel tired. Our bodies start making this hormone usually when it begins to get dark. During the day our bodies don’t make melatonin.
Technology radiates blue light. Exposure to blue light at night mimics the effect of the sun and tricks your body into thinking it should still be awake. So your body stops producing melatonin. Research has shown that exposure to blue light suppresses your body's production of melatonin more than any other
Everyone’s sleep runs on about a 24 hour clock, called a circadian rhythm. The word circadian is Latin, it translates in English to about a day. Everyone has slightly different circadian rhythms some people's are a little more than 24 hours and some are a bit less. That's why some people need more sleep than others do. To reset that clock everyday we need sunlight.
Sunlight keeps our body’s clock aligned with the environment. But exposure to any light not coming from the sun (such as blue light) at the wrong time of day can throw off your internal rhythms. Which is how technology can affect your sleeping patterns, by being exposed to artificial light from things like technology, at the wrong time of day. Then as you begin to stay up later on a constant basis, you readjust your internal clock, becoming tired or wide awake at the wrong