It’s World Sleep Day today!

When I’m asked about sleep, the number one thing people want to know is how to switch off!

And it’s not surprising really.

We all know that the advent of smartphones, screens, social media have massively affected people’s sleep.

It must be because of the blue light right?

So we’ve invented blue light filters on our devices, and even blue light blocking glasses……..but it doesn’t seem to have helped…………..so what’s going on?

First a bit of background.Our body needs a way of shutting down some of the biological processes that keep us alive – we can’t be running on FULL 24 hours a day.

**BURNOUT!!**

So it takes external cues from our environment to decide when to do that.

The biggest cue is the sky – when it’s blue we need to be awake, when it’s not, we can rest.

There are a particular set of cells in the eye that respond to an exact frequency of blue light and send a message to the brain to suppress the production of melatonin (the hormone that makes us sleepy).

So blue light = no sleep.

So why aren’t we sleeping better with all these blue light blocking methods?

**AROUSAL**

And not the good kind 

Think about what you’re doing on these devices before you fall asleep:

REGULAR TV

* Sitting further away from the screen

* Light is often dimmer in lounge

* Defined start and end times of the programme you’re watching

* Passive, not much interaction required

NETFLIX (AND CHILL)

* Sitting further away from the screen (if on TV and not laptop/tablet)

* Binge watching, easy to start another episode – instant gratification

* Passive, not much interaction required

SCROLLING SOCIAL MEDIA

* Interactive not passive

* Face closer to the screen, less chance for blue light photons to disperse

* Designed to be stimulating

* Designed to keep you on it for as long as possible – the newsfeed is endless

* Time displacement – easy for hours to go by without realizing it

PLAYING VIDEO GAMES

* Designed to be highly engaging

* High level of interaction required

* Time displacement

* HYPER stimulating

The further down the list we get the more our brain lights up like a fucking fairground!

We are super aroused  and stimulated from a psychological perspective.

None of this is conducive to restful, good quality sleep.

We haven’t developed a biological safety net for this in the same way we have other issues.

Take overeating for example.

We have biological processes in our body that are designed to stop us eating too much…….hunger and satiety hormones, stomach receptors, actual vomiting….and all sorts of fancy shit to stop that happening.

But for this, no.

So we have to create our own.

Here’s some suggestions for your **digital safety net**:

* Set boundaries around what time you will switch of tech at night

* Decide in advance how many levels of a game/episodes of a show you will watch

* Set your phone to grayscale to make it less appealing to pick up

* Blue blocking glasses, or apps like Flux, Night Shift etc

* No devices in the bedroom (not that type anyway )

* If you’re not ready to take the phone out of the bedroom, only use it standing up, and not all comfy and cosy in bed.

So there’s a few practical tips.

Do you do any of the things above?

And will you try to reduce/change your behaviours for a better quality sleep?

Lemme know in the comments 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽