Our smartphones have become a central part of our everyday lives. We use it to communicate, for live updates to the news, to document our lives with photos and videos, for entertainment, and so much more. A lot of people spend a good portion of their days on their phones because they do so much for us. While smartphones may make life easier in many aspects, they can also make life more difficult in others.
One of the ways that smartphones can have a negative influence in our lives is by interrupting our sleep cycles – and I’m not just talking about notification vibrations or ringtones waking us up in the middle of the night. Simply by using our smartphones as much as we do can really mess up our circadian rhythm.
Aside from simply being addicted to our smartphones, the smartphone’s screen (specifically its blueish tint) has a lot to do with how smartphones can affect sleep. As it turns out, the blue tint of electronics can hinder the release of melatonin, the hormone that anticipates darkness and tells our brains that it’s time to rest until daytime. Without melatonin, our want for sleep is hindered, and thus begins the vicious cycle.
When we aren’t feeling sleepy, it’s natural to want to do something – anything – to keep from being bored. What more convenient way to try and lull yourself to sleep than to use your smartphone while lying in bed? At least you’re already lying down, so surely you’ll eventually get tired of playing on your phone and you’ll want to fall asleep. Unfortunately, that eerie blue tint is still being emitted, and you’re still preventing the pea-sized pineal gland in your brain from releasing melatonin. While you’ll eventually drift off to sleep, it can end up being much later than it would be if you weren’t using your smartphone (or any electronic device for that matter) to help cure your insomnia.
The simple solution? Put down the smartphone, turn off the computers, TVs, and tablets, and just go to sleep. In reality, that can be very hard to do when you’re feeling sleepless and bored. It’s easy to feel like we’re wasting our time doing nothing when we feel so awake. Fortunately, for those that have trouble keeping away from the electronics at night, there are solutions.
Recently, a popular service called f.lux finally became available for non-jailbroken iPhones, although it was subsequently pulled from being able to do so just a couple of days later due to violation of developer agreement. Although f.lux is no longer available for non-jailbroken iPhones, what f.lux does can be an immensely handy tool for night owls who are hooked on their gadgets.
F.lux turns the blue tint emitted from our gadgets into warmer red tones from dusk until dawn, when our brains and bodies are readying itself for sleep. The idea behind the warmer color tones is that it will still allow production of some melatonin, and also reduce eye strain caused by staring at a bright (or dim) blue color temperature.
iOS users will unfortunately have a harder time finding an app that successfully does this without jailbreaking (Gamma Thingy, however, seems to be a viable alternative, with some work) but Android users have the benefit here as there are multiple apps that do the same thing as f.lux does. Twilight and Lux are two of the most popular, and as a personal anecdote I was very happy with Twilight when I used Android.
As an added recommendation, if you’re interested in using warmer color correction in your life to see if it helps with sleepless nights, it’s best to find a program for all of your gadgets. F.lux also works on Mac and PC.
These programs aren’t miracle workers, but in my opinion they have helped me get to sleep sooner than I do without. Obviously, the best course of action would be to just not use electronics late at night at all, but we all know how useful of a suggestion that is.
Readers, do you remedy sleep troubles with electronic usage at night? Have you used color correction apps like Twilight or f.lux to help you get to sleep sooner? If so, what are your experiences? Share them with us in the comments below!
