According to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the light emitted by our tablet disturbs our ability to fall asleep and the quality of our sleep!
The guilty ? A blue light
Anne-Marie Chang, the neuroscientist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, USA, shows that smartphones, laptops, tablets and TVs are harmful to our sleep. Blame it on the blue light emitted by the LEDs of our screens, which significantly disrupts the secretion of melatonin, a hormone essential to the good quality of our sleep.
Tablets disrupt our internal clock
Read before sleeping:For 2 weeks, 12 participants read 5 consecutive evenings on a tablet and then the following week, on a paper book, for 4 hours. Participants had to be in bed by 10 p.m., scheduled to wake up at 6 a.m. the next morning.
Results:Blood tests show that those who read on a tablet need an extra 10 minutes to fall asleep. Reading on a tablet before sleeping means more time to fall asleep, less fatigue felt immediately, but shorter sleep cycles.
The tablets cause the production of the sleep hormone to drop
Researchers record a drop of more than 50% in melatonin. Melatonin is the hormone that allows us to locate ourselves in time, but with the tablet our internal clock is completely disrupted! The effects are felt the next day, with more fatigue than people reading on the paper version and even after eight hours of sleep!
A less deep and less restorative sleep?
So using our tablet has an impact on our sleep. This leads to a longer time to fall asleep, a so-called "lighter" sleep, split into micro-awakenings. The next day, it's not over, you feel more tired, and you doze off during the day.
According to psychiatrist and sleep doctor Sylvie Royant-Parola, using your smartphone in complete darkness has more serious consequences on our sleep:"the effects of tablets […] are all the more important when reading is done in the dark complete, because the light captured by the eye is then stronger. This is what happens with smartphones, often watched in the dark when going to bed or at night. In this case, the screen is also very close to the eyes. »
Apps and tips
Top? Of course, do not use devices that produce blue light before going to bed! Fortunately for us, there are filters that block the emission of this light! Twilight, an application is downloadable on Android. It manages the brightness of our screen during the day. It filters and replaces blue light with a light red veil as soon as the sun goes down. Thus, our natural sleep cycle is not disturbed.
And for those who are on Iphones, we find the same effect with a film to put directly on the screen of Apple devices.
Laura Girard
