{"id":2516,"date":"2018-03-16T15:38:56","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T15:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goodnights.rest\/?page_id=2516"},"modified":"2018-08-13T10:04:37","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T10:04:37","slug":"tips-for-using-gadgets","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/goodnights.rest\/the-science-of-sleep\/tips-for-using-gadgets\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 Tips for Using Gadgets at Night"},"content":{"rendered":"
Have you ever looked up from your email, bleary-eyed, only to realize that it’s 2AM in the morning? Or have you ever shut off your phone and lain awake in your bed, not feeling sleepy at all? We’ve all been there. More and more of us are using gadgets late into the night, and that’s taking a heavy toll on our sleeping patterns and overall wellbeing. Light, after all, is one of the top regulators of our sleeping patterns<\/a>, and what gadget today doesn’t come with a backlight?<\/p>\n Swearing off gadgets entirely, however, has become all but impossible. Whether due to force of habit or the demands of our jobs, few of us can truly keep our evenings gadget-free. But that doesn’t mean we’re doomed to a lifetime of sleepless nights. There are a few steps we can take to strike a better balance between gadget use and restful sleep. Here are our top five:<\/p>\n Not during the night, of course! The task of maintaining our sleeping patterns is more of a marathon than a sprint, and unsurprisingly, the same holds true when it comes to managing the role that light plays. Research has found that your history of light exposure<\/a> can determine how sensitive you are to nighttime light sources. Logging a lot of hours in the sun (or in the presence of bright light) during the day can make you more resilient to the effects of evening light sources and gadgets, even if these tend to emit lots of that problematic blue light.<\/p>\n Remember melanopsin<\/a>? If you’ll recall, it has a high reactivity threshold; compared to the split-second reactivity of our retinas’ image-forming receptors, melanopsin is more influenced by the gradual build-up of light exposure throughout the day. When you soak in daytime bright light regularly, you train your melanopsin pathways to have a stiffer reaction threshold to the presence of light. Consequently, it will take more <\/em>nighttime exposure to elicit strong melanopsin responses and create serious disruptions in your circadian patterns.<\/p>\n1. Step outside.<\/h2>\n
2. Switch lighting sources.<\/h2>\n