Could You Get A Good Night Sleep Without Your Phone?

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Do you own a phone? Is it charging in your room even while you are sleeping?

Just think:  you are lying down trying to fall asleep but you hear it, the silent buzz trying to get you to look. So you check to see what it was saying, and while that's happening, you get distracted by something else on your phone, one after the other. Now it's close to one a.m. and you haven't slept a wink. Great. 

The Amount

Surveys have shown that 95% of Americans have some type of phone, and 77% have smartphones. Also 88% of teenagers have a cellphone, and 56% of kids ages 8 to 12 own phones. It was also shown that adults need seven to nine hours of sleep, teenagers need nine to nine and a half. Then children need nine to eleven hours and toddlers need eleven to fourteen hours. Cell Phones or electronic devices prohibit us from getting the amount of sleep we need.

Now Imagine This…

You really need to go to bed but you decide one more show, one more text, one more picture, one more game, until  you lose control and it turns into five more shows, five more texts, five more pictures and of course five more games. You now realize it's getting really late and you should have gone to sleep hours ago, but when you lay your head down and try to sleep, you can't. The light from the phone prohibits melatonin production. So now you can't fall asleep and it's really late. Hopefully you’ll be energized for tomorrow: news flash--you won't be.

Why can’t I sleep?

The blue LED light from your phone interferes with your melatonin production. We need that melatonin to fall asleep and stay asleep, but due to phones we can’t. Also you may stay up for hours being distracted by that small device.

It was shown that adults, growing teenagers and children need about an average 9 hours of sleep per night, but because of phones that never really happens. It was shown that teens sleeping less than seven hours a night every night due to cell phones went up by 22% from 2012 to 2015.

What can I do?

To be able to fall asleep and stay asleep you need to have melatonin. As we have seen electronic devices interfere with that. Stay off our phone or electronic devices two hours before bed. Instead find other ways to distract yourself. Even setting your alarm before bed can cause distractions and still interfere with melatonin production. Charging your phone in another room can make it easier to do this. So stay off your phone two hours before bed and charge it in another room!

 URLs

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/sleep/sleep-needs-get-the-sleep-you-need.htm/

https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/specialties/sleep-disorder-center/sleep-in-adolescents

https://www.sleep.org/articles/how-much-sleep-children-need/

https://www.sleep.org/articles/how-much-sleep-children/

https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/specialties/sleep-disorder-center/sleep-in-adolescents

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/sleep/sleep-needs-get-the-sleep-you-need.htm/

https://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/

http://www.growingwireless.com/get-the-facts/quick-facts

Attributions
By: McKenzie Fry