Smartphone devices are wonderful creations. They enrich the lives and learning of us all and offer a tremendous educative function, especially for young people. But by using these devices we are also enriching our eyes and brains with powerful blue light that has a damaging effect on sleep. Sleep is vitally important for brain health and provides a massive restorative function for a host of important physiological functions including memory retention.
Using LED devices at night negatively impacts our natural sleep rhythms, the quality of our sleep and how alert we feel during the day. Getting the right amount of sleep is even more pertinent for young people as they need sleep for their developing brains to flourish.
Modern living has massively impacted on our ability to adhere to otherwise instinctual sleep patterns. Longer commute times and “sleep procrastination” – as a result of late-night television and digital entertainment – have impacted on our sleep time.
Constant electric light as well as LED light, regularized temperature, caffeine, alcohol and a legacy of punching time cards are the side effects of the impact of modernity on sleep. It is these societally engineered forces that are responsible for the common mistaken belief that sleep problems are medical insomnia. Insomnia, also referred to as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder and individuals have trouble sleeping. The difficulty could be in falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by sleepiness the next day, accompanied by low energy, irritability, and a depressed mood. A sleep medicine professional can diagnose whether you have medical insomnia or if your sleep has been compromised by poor sleep hygiene.
Neuroscience of sleep
Understanding brain functioning and specifically around sleep can prove to be valuable in boosting sleep quality. The suprachiasmatic nucleus is the master clock in the brain responsible for controlling circadian rhythms. It is located in the hypothalamus, situated directly above the optic chiasm, and co-ordinates the body clocks of vital organs (yes there are many body clocks). The suprachiasmatic nucleus contains neurons which display a circadian pattern of activity. It also serves to regulate melatonin secretion by the pineal gland in response to the environmental light/dark cycle. Melatonin is a hormone found naturally in the body. The production and release of melatonin in the brain is connected to time of day, increasing in darkness and decreasing when light.
Your internal clock can be wound back by two to three hours each evening by electric light. Electric light brought to an end a natural order of things – when appropriately scheduled tiredness, followed by sleep, would normally occur several hours after dusk.
The curse of blue light-emitting diodes
A new invention in the 1990s made matters worse for the healthy functioning of the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Professors Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura made the first blue LEDs in the early 1990s (and were honoured with the Nobel prize in physics in 2014). Blue light LEDs were less energy demanding and had a longer life span than incandescent lamps. That is the good bit. This enabled a new generation of bright, energy-efficient white lamps, as well as colour LED screens.
Although red and green LEDs had existed for many years, blue LEDs were a long-standing challenge for scientists in both academia and industry. In their absence the three colours could not be mixed in order to produce the white light which we now see in LED-based computer and TV screens. In addition to this, the high-energy blue light could be used to excite phosphorus and directly produce white light – the basis of the next generation of light bulb. In its award citation, the Nobel committee declared: “Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th Century; the 21st Century will be lit by LED lamps.”
However, the invention of blue light LEDs has been bad news for sleep as they have massively added to the delay in releasing melatonin. The light receptors in the eye that communicate “daytime” to the master clock in your brain (the suprachiasmatic nucleus) are highly sensitive to short wavelength light within the blue spectrum. This is exactly the sweet spot where blue LEDs are most powerful. So, what is the result of this? Well, evening blue light has twice the harmful impact on nighttime melatonin suppression than the warm, yellow light from old incandescent lamps (and this occurs even when the lux intensities are matched).
Admittedly, we may not stare into a LED lamp all evening but we do look at laptop and smartphone/Ipad screens for many hours with these blue light emissions very close to our eyes. Such usage can have a major impact on the release of melatonin and the ability to time the onset of sleep.
A vital question is to ask whether using a smartphone into the night actually changes quantity/quality above and beyond the timing of melatonin? Studies have shown that it did in the following concerning ways. Firstly, users ended up losing significant amounts of REM sleep following smartphone/laptop usage. Secondly, the research subjects said they felt less rested and more sleepier during the day following device time the night before. Thirdly, subjects reported a lingering aftereffect, with some saying that they experienced a 90 minute lag in their evening rising melatonin levels for several days after device use stopped. This reporting of a lingering aftereffect could be viewed as a digital hangover.
The solutions for fixing the negativity of artificial light
The solutions for restricting the effects of the omnipresent artificial light at night are not easy. You could, though, install software on devices that gradually de-saturate the harmful blue LED light as evening progresses. Some devices, especially the more modern ones, will have this function already installed in the control settings. You could also explore the options provided by yellow tinted glasses that helps to filter out the most harmful emissions from blue light that suppresses the release of melatonin. A less dramatic solution would be to rearrange your living room lighting to ensure dim lighting is fitted rather than employing powerful overhead lighting. Your bedroom should be completely dark and black-out curtains (or silver foil on the windows) could be used. Also, be aware that even basic reading lamps in the bedroom – even just 8 to 10 lux – have been shown to adversely affect the release of nighttime melatonin.
Do you think you need help with your sleep problems? The devices may be acting as a form of avoidance in not addressing difficult feelings. Therapy can help with imposing boundaries around devices and the use of technology in general including dealing with anxiety and any fear of missing out. Being able to better assert yourself and deal with stimulus control could prove to be transformative outcomes of therapy.
See also
Counselling and psychotherapy for sleep problems
Noel Bell is available for counselling and psychotherapy and can be contacted on 07852407140 or noel@noelbell.net 