Is this you…
Like a trusty guard dog, your smart phone probably rests right next to you (or even under your pillow) every night when you go to sleep. You’re able to answer calls, texts and emails at a moment’s notice – even during the wee hours of the night. And isn’t that the best part about technology? Always being connected and never truly shutting down or logging off? Not so fast. You probably don’t even realize how your smart phone habits are affecting your sleep.
1. It keeps your mind psychologically engaged
Smart phones were designed to make us more productive and our lives easier. They’re designed to entertain us and provide information. But when it’s time to turn off the lights and go to sleep, the last thing our brain needs is more information and more entertainment. (And that seems fair enough – we give our brains enough to think about during the day!)
The smart phone era has forced us to feel like we can never really log off, even when we’re sleeping. Your mind can stay active and engaged long after you’ve scrolled through Instagram or responded to a few work emails. Going to bed and falling asleep should be a peaceful, happy and relaxing experience. Engaging with your phone too close to bedtime can negatively impact those feelings.
2. The blue light from the screen suppresses melatonin
Blue light from screens of laptops, tablets and smartphones supresses melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone responsible for controlling your sleep-wake cycle. So when your body runs low on it, you can experience insomnia, tiredness during the day and irritability.
3. Alerts delay REM sleep
Knowing your smartphone is at hand can mean you are aware of new email alerts or social media alerts. These alerts or simply waiting for these alerts can delay REM sleep.
So if you want to improve the quality of your sleep simply have 1 hour technology free before bed.
Reference
https://www.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.01413.2009
Related Posts
Forget what you think you know about Parkinson’s …
There seems to be a trend at the moment of researchers discovering that chronic disease starts in the gut. A theory was proposed in 2003 that was that Parkinson’s which is seen as a brain disease originates in the gut. Now researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark have confirmed that Parkinson’s migrates from the gut. Another important discovery is that the hearts of people with Parkinson’s can also be affected. In fact, the protein alpha-synuclein starts in the gut, then damages the heart before moving on to the brain. They also discovered that it’s in the heart where the damage to the nervous system begins. Researchers now say that a build-up of the protein alpha-synuclein in the gut can be detected up to 20 years before the disease manifests. Researcher Per Broghammer says that understanding where Parkinson’s originates is the first step towards preventing the disease and developing an effective treatment. Reference https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00401-019-02040-w
Whats the most effective recovery strategy from after a run?
Fatigue in sport has become a topic of interest among athletes, coaches and sport scientists because it affects athletic performance across a wide range of sports. Sports related fatigue can be defined as a decline of muscle force or an exercise induced impairment of performance. (Knicker, 2011).Scientists recruited 46 healthy male recreational runners taking part in the same half marathon event and assigned them to four groups of equal ability, which either had sports massage, cold water immersion (ice baths), active recovery or passive rest within 15 minutes after the event.The sports massage group had a 20 minutes post event sports massage focusing on the legs. The cold water immersion group sat in cold baths where the temperature was maintained at fifteen degrees centrigrade plus/minus 1 degree. While participants in the passive rest group sat at rest on a bench. While those in the active recovery group jogged at 60% of their anaerobic threshold for all 15 minutes.24 hours before the half marathon, immediately after the intervention and then 24 hours after the race jump height, muscle soreness, perceived recovery and stress were measured. The results show the sports massage and cold water immersion had no effect on objective markers of fatigue such as changes in muscle and the blood but they did have a significant effect ont he subjective fatigue measures, including perceived recover and muscle soreness. These interventions were more effective than passive rest while active recovery had no physical advantage and a negative effect on perceived recovery.ReferenceStarve a fever?
There is an old wives saying, feed a cold and starve a fever, but what does the latest science say? Although eating less when we are ill can sometimes help us to recover faster. The loss of appetite when we have an infection is a biological "trick" that simply allows bacteria to spread. Eating nutritious food when we have an infection can reduce its severity and recover time say researchers. Researchers have tracked the health of laboratory mice infected with the Salmonella bacteria and found that natural loss of appetite helped the bacteria spread from the intestines to other tissues. By comparison, mice fed extra calories lived longer. This discovery could lead to new ways to tackle bacterial infections that don't rely on antibiotics. Reference Rao, Shelia et al, 2017, Pathogen-Mediated Inhibition of Anorexia Promotes Host Survival and Transmission, Cell, Volume 168, Issue 3, 503 - 516
