Instead of posting this last night, I decided to take my own advice. :)
I enjoyed reading the results of this recent study, because this is advice I've been giving my patients for a while. It seems intuitive to me.
In the pre-electronic era, there were natural signals to your body that it was time to start slowing down and preparing for sleep. The sun went down, lights became dim, and your body started producing the melatonin necessary to fall asleep. Now we go, go, go--watching TV, texting, typing--until the moment it is time to go to bed. And our bodies never get the message that they need to start winding down. We hit the off switch, close our eyes, and then wonder why we're not getting the type or amount of restful sleep we need.
I'm not going to argue that this isn't hard. I'm frequently on my laptop, finishing up charts from the day, until bedtime. But I believe that sleep is a key thing to our long-term health, so I'm all about trying to make small adjustments. If we can only start by avoiding screen time for half an hour before bed, I believe it will make a difference. Try dimming the other lights in your house in the hours before bedtime. I know I'm returning to reading in bed before I snooze: a novel, my scriptures, a magazine, whatever.
I read a similar study about the effect of screen time in the evenings on kids' sleep. I monitor Tiny's screen time closely, and have been doing it in the morning, when I'm not as worried about it disrupting her sleep.
So here's a little prescription for this week: Make a goal to turn off your screens at least a little before bed than you would have normally.
Baby steps, right?
Happy Zzzz's everyone! :)
So true! Great advice. Jason and I have had the same goal for quite some time, although it doesn't always go as planned-in our bed by 10:30 PM, and then we can read, write in a journal or do whatever. In fact it takes INCREDIBLE discipline to make it work... We're pretty bad at it.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I must say, with the energy that Jason and I exert on a daily basis, it's VERY rare that we can't fall asleep.
You really are a great doctor from what I can tell, with a lot of common sense too, which is very hard to find sometimes. I really love reading your blog.
Sooooooo much easier said than done, but I'm going to give it a go.
ReplyDeleteRenae--thanks for your kind words! I agree...it takes incredible discipline--I'm still working on it!
ReplyDeleteBen--I hear you on that! I saw lowbluelights.com on the early show. Apparently they make glasses that mute the light so that if you have to work before bed, it lessens the effect on your brain! Kinda crazy, but kinda cool. :)