After a long day of classes, before you go to sleep, you may find yourself saying, “Just 20 more minutes of TikTok” or, “Just one more episode of Love is Blind, I swear.” However, these actions have a much greater consequence than you may think. The human body needs at least seven hours of undisturbed sleep per night to maximize its functionality for the next day (Chaput, Dutil and Sampasa-Kanyinga, 2018). By being exposed to screen time within an hour of sleeping, these seven hours are jeopardized. A person’s sleep-wake cycle can be disturbed, productivity for the next day is affected, and an anxious lifestyle can be developed.
The most harmful byproduct of screen time is the exposure to blue light emitted from the device. In general, blue light can deteriorate one’s retina, as it penetrates through the eye’s lens and causes retinal photochemical damage (Li, et al., 2021). In addition to retinal damage, blue light can cause excess amounts of melatonin to be secreted, as this hormone is produced at higher doses during this time, thus, causing a disturbance in the body’s overall circadian rhythm (Zhao, et al., 2018). At this point, the body will receive significantly less doses of melatonin from the pineal gland, located in the midline of the brain, and cause a hormone imbalance throughout the body (Hardeland, 2012). This hormone imbalance can be more catastrophic than just affecting sleep, as it has the ability to affect menstrual cycles, puberty, prolactin production, testosterone levels, and estrogen levels (National Institute of Health, 2022). Additionally, blue light exposure before sleep can cause increased corticosteroid production (cortisol levels), leading to parasympathetic nerve excitability in the eyes. This prevents one’s eyes from naturally closing, resulting in an inability to sleep and the increased risk of suffering from dry eye symptoms (Magno, et al., 2021). Since cortisol levels are elevated following blue light exposure, the body becomes dependent on that high dose. Therefore, when it fails to receive an elevated dose, the body produces a negative feedback loop and triggers a ‘burnout’.
On average, 90% of people suffer from the side effects of blue light before sleep (Gradisar, et al., 2013). A study in 2019 collected data on the amount of screen time spent before bed and compared it to the quality of sleep the participants got (Figure 1). In this study, each participant got approximately 6 hours of sleep and reported that 63% were fatigued the next day (Alshobaili and AlYousefi, 2019). Of those 63%, 40% of them experienced a headache at some point during the following day.
Figure 1. A 2019 study comparing the time spent using a smartphone prior to sleep with overall sleep quality. With this data, the odds ratio, 95% confidence interval, and significance were calculated. As participants were exposed to higher amounts of screen time, they received worse sleep that same night (Alshobaili and AlYousefi, 2019).
Blue light emissions are very harmful to humans, especially when exposed before bedtime. Although it may not be completely feasible to eliminate the amount of time spent on our devices at night, there are alternative solutions. This includes blue light glasses that specialize in helping to protect from the light emitted. Alternatively, try picking up a book! It may sound “old-fashioned” in our technologically advanced world, but it is a healthy replacement for our device.
References
Alshobaili, F.A. and AlYousefi, N.A., 2019. The effect of smartphone usage at bedtime on sleep quality among Saudi non- medical staff at King Saud University Medical City. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 8(6), pp.1953–1957. https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_269_19.
Chaput, J.-P., Dutil, C. and Sampasa-Kanyinga, H., 2018. Sleeping hours: what is the ideal number and how does age impact this? Nature and Science of Sleep, 10, p.421. https://doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S163071.
Gradisar, M., Wolfson, A.R., Harvey, A.G., Hale, L., Rosenberg, R. and Czeisler, C.A., 2013. The Sleep and Technology Use of Americans: Findings from the National Sleep Foundation’s 2011 Sleep in America Poll. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine : JCSM : Official Publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 9(12), pp.1291–1299. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.3272.
Hardeland, R., 2012. Neurobiology, Pathophysiology, and Treatment of Melatonin Deficiency and Dysfunction. The Scientific World Journal, [online] 2012. https://doi.org/10.1100/2012/640389.
Li, H., Zhang, M., Wang, D., Dong, G., Chen, Z., Li, S., Sun, X., Zeng, M., Liao, H., Chen, H., Xiao, S. and Li, X., 2021. Blue Light from Cell Phones Can Cause Chronic Retinal Light Injury: The Evidence from a Clinical Observational Study and a SD Rat Model. BioMed Research International, 2021, p.3236892. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/3236892.
Magno, M.S., Utheim, T.P., Snieder, H., Hammond, C.J. and Vehof, J., 2021. The relationship between dry eye and sleep quality. The Ocular Surface, 20, pp.13–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtos.2020.12.009.
National Institutes of Health, 2022. Melatonin: What You Need To Know. [online] Melatonin: What You Need To Know. Available at: <https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/melatonin-what-you-need-to-know> [Accessed 12 March 2024].
Zhao, Z.-C., Zhou, Y., Tan, G. and Li, J., 2018. Research progress about the effect and prevention of blue light on eyes. International Journal of Ophthalmology, 11(12), p.1999. https://doi.org/10.18240/ijo.2018.12.20.
Comments
17 Responses to “Dream Disruptors: The Harm of Phone Use Before Bedtime”
Hey Arjun,
I really enjoyed your post and found it to be very relatable. Many students have or currently still engage in the activity of using phones before they sleep. Wonderful choice of topic! Here are a few suggestions that might help improve the post:
– My first point is to remember to leave a comment letting the readers know why you chose the topic and how it connects to what’s being taught and the different disciplines.
– In the last sentence of your second paragraph: “Therefore, when it doesn’t receive”, you can avoid contractions by saying this instead: “Therefore, when it fails to receive”. There are no other contractions so good job on avoiding the use of them.
– Make sure you reference your figure correctly, you only have one figure called ‘Figure 1’ but in your third paragraph you reference it by writing “participants got (Figure 2).” Change this to Figure 1.
Great post! I can’t wait to read the final draft.
Durezernab Berki
Hey DB,
Thanks for commenting on my blog post. I totally forgot to write a comment, so I just included that. I fixed the other two suggestions that you made, thanks!
Arjun
Hi Arjun,
I enjoyed reading your blog post and learning more about the importance of not using your phone before bed. I also like how you mentioned some feasible alternative options in your conclusion. I have a couple of suggestions that I believe could help make your blog post even better:
– I would suggest splitting up the last sentence of your first paragraph and the second sentence of your second paragraph into two separate sentences. Consider starting a new sentence after “…these seven hours are jeopardized” and “…melatonin to be secreted”, respectively. This would help improve the clarity and flow of these sentences.
– I would suggest adding a citation for the first sentence of your second paragraph. Since it introduces the topic of blue light for the first time within your blog post, I think your readers would benefit from knowing where you located this information.
– If you have the space, I think it would be beneficial to expand on how the hormone imbalance caused by decreased melatonin affects some of those other aspects you mentioned in the fourth sentence of your second paragraph (menstrual cycles, puberty, prolactin production, testosterone levels, and estrogen levels).
– I believe some of the dates of your citations do not align. The citation included in your Figure 1 caption is (Gradisar, et al., 2019), however in your references, the date associated with these authors is 2013. I would suggest double-checking to ensure the dates are correct.
– Additionally, I think it would be important to include a comparison to groups that had less or no screen time before bed when you mention “ 63% were fatigued the next day… 0% of them experienced a headache…”. This would offer a sort of baseline to give these statistics context.
I hope some of my comments are helpful in the editing process. I cannot wait to read the final product!
Kind regards,
Julia
Hey Julia,
Thanks for commenting on my blog post. I tweaked my first sentence a little bit so the clarity is better. Also, the citation after the second sentence of the second paragraph is meant to be for the both the sentences since I got the information from the same source. I fixed the citations as well, so thanks for pointing that out. Although those are good ideas to expand upon, I am already over the word count. Maybe I can focus on related topics for a future blog post.
Thanks!
Hey Arjun,
Very interesting and relevant blog post topic! This blog post reminded me that I personally need to work on not going on my phone before I go to sleep. I liked your conclusion that. included more realistic suggestions for mitigating this issue.
Here are some suggestions:
– This is a small error, but you accidentally referenced figure 2 in-text when you are referring to figure 1, so just make sure to change it to figure 1.
– Also, make sure to include a comment under your blog post, with why you chose your topic.
– It would be nice if you explained in the figure caption more about what exactly sleep quality means. How did they measure sleep quality as being good vs. poor in this study?
Overall, good job! Looking forward to reading the final edits.
Best,
Alyssia
Hey Alyssia,
Thanks for taking time to read my blog post. Thanks for pointing out the error in my figure labelling, I fixed it. I also edited my figure caption, thanks!
Arjun
Hey iSci,
I chose to write my blog post about what I think is an important and prevalent issue in today’s world. After discussing Nomobophobia and cortisol levels in our Life Science class, I became interested in this type of research. In my blog post, I integrated these concepts with other topics, such as hormonal imbalance, anatomical diseases, and more. Please feel free to leave any feedback!
Arjun
Hi Arjun! Awesome job on your blog post this week! I think this topic is super relevant to the majority of university students and I really liked the last sentence of your blog that reinforces a healthy alternative to spending time on technology before bed.
Some feedback:
– In your first sentence, “After a long day of classes, before you go to sleep, you may find yourself saying “Just 20 minutes more of TikTok” or “Just one more episode of Love is Blind, I swear,” you should add a comma after the word “saying” before the quotations, and after the word “or.”
– As well, you state: “Just one more episode of Love is Blind, I swear”. In this phrase the quotation should go after the period.
– This sentence is quite long: “By being exposed to screen time within an hour of sleeping, these seven hours are jeopardized, as a person’s sleep-wake cycle is disturbed, productivity for the next day is affected, and an anxious lifestyle can be developed.” I recommend splitting it up into 2 sentences or adding more transition words in the sentence to create a smoother read for the audience. For example, you could rephrase it to, “By being exposed to screen time within an hour of sleeping, the seven hours are jeopardized, as a person’s sleep-wake cycle is disturbed, which affects ones productivity levels the next day as well as increases the risk of developing an anxious lifestyle.”
– Super cool to read that 90% of people suffer from the side effects of blue light before sleep. I didn’t know the percentage was that high.
Overall, excellent job and good luck with editing!
Hey Mara,
Thanks for reading my post. Good catch in my first paragraph, I didn’t even notice it. I also edited the long sentence and broke it up into two different sentences.
Thanks!
Hi Arjun, great blog post! I found it really interesting to learn about how blue light can impact sleep.
Here are just a few suggestions on what can be edited…
P2S3: Here you write “additional” and “addition” in the same sentence. For better flow I would suggest replacing the second one by changing “blue light can cause additional amounts of melatonin to be secreted” to “blue light can cause excess amounts of melatonin to be secreted.”
P2S4: For better flow I would suggest changing “the body will receive significantly less doses of melatonin” to “the amount of melatonin supplied to the body will significantly decrease.”
P2S5: I think you may have written “hormone balance” here instead of, “this hormone imbalance.”
Overall great job, I can’t wait to read the final product!
Hey Ella,
Thanks for commenting on my blog post. I didn’t realize I used “additionally” twice in the same sentence, so I switched it to “excess” for the second word. I also meant to say “hormone imbalance”, so thanks for pointing that out!
Thanks Ella
Hi Arjun!
Great blog post! Very interesting to learn about and very applicable to our lives (I love my phone)
A few suggestions to improve:
– the “Just 20 minutes” and “just one” phrases should have lowercase j’s on the just
– also, the phrase “just 20 minutes more” is a little awkward because you are placing the noun before more, but then in the second “just one more episode”, you put the more before the noun – trying saying “just 20 more minutes”, to keep it consistent
– also for consistency, you may want to change “20” to “twenty”, since you are writing “one episode”
– I am a bit confused on how blue light increases melatonin but also causes the body to receive decreased doses – do you mean it develops a tolerance to melatonin? Some clarification would be helpful for readers.
– You may want to review you figure caption – I believe that the p-value refers to significance, and not probability (technically it is probability-related but it is not the direct probability of something happening). You also may want to clarify what the confidence index is.
Overall, awesome blog post – I’m super excited to read the final result!
Amelie
Hey Amelie,
Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog post! I fixed all the errors with the “Just twenty more minutes”. However, I do believe that the J should be capitalized. I also expanded on how blue light increases melatonin the best I can (staying within the word count) now. I fixed my figure caption as well, thanks!
Arjun
Hey Arjun,
Excellent blog post, it was a very interesting topic to read and was very applicable to my own life. I have a few suggestions for you:
-In the sentence “After a long day of classes, before you go to sleep, you may find yourself saying “Just 20 minutes more of TikTok” or “Just one more episode of Love is Blind, I swear”.” the period should be within the quotation marks. I also believe this can be reworded to sound better, for example, “After a long day of classes, you may be one of the many people who succumb to the ‘just 20 more minutes on Tiktok,’ or ‘one more episode of love island’ before going to bed.”
-In your second paragraph, i would replace the word “However” as it doesnt make sense. Instead i would suggest re wording the whole sentence to read, “In addition to retinal damage, blue light can also cause additional amounts of melatonin to be secreted.” and end the sentence there.
– In the sentence “Since these cortisol levels are elevated following blue light exposure, the body becomes dependent on that high dose.” remove the word these since it doesnt make sense in this sentence.
– In the last sentence “Alternatively, try picking up a book! It may sound “old-fashioned” in our technologically advanced world, but it is a healthy replacement for our device. I would make device plural to help the flow of the sentence.
Overall, this was a very well-researched blog and I cant wait to read the final version!
Ahad
Hey Ahad,
Thanks for taking time to comment on my blog post! I made sure to add the period inside the quotation mark (as per your suggestion). I also took your other two suggestions and implemented them into my post. Thanks!
Arjun
Hi Arjun, I really enjoyed your post! I thought it was very intriguing!
Some suggestions I have include:
-In your first sentence, of the second paragraph the line “exposure to the blue light emitted” can be reworded to “exposure to blue light emitted” for ease of reading.
-In the second paragraph you mention melatonin and circadian rhythm, if the word count permits, maybe further elaborate on the chemistry component behind this, if you do end up adding more on it, consider adding the chemical structure of melatonin. I think this could contribute well to your piece!
-Consider breaking up your second paragraph into two shorter paragraphs, in the first paragraph you could discuss melatonin’s impact and in the second you could discuss the increased corticosteroid production.
Overall I really enjoyed your post and I am excited to read the final copy!
Hey Jaden,
Thanks for taking time to read and comment on my blog post. I removed the word “the” from the first sentence in the second paragraph. Also, unfortunately I do not have space to talk more about the chemistry component behind this topic since I am already over the word count 🙁 . Thanks for the suggestions Jaden!
Arjun