There’s growing concern among experts that the proliferation of glowing gadgets like computers may fool your brain into thinking that it’s still daytime after the sun has gone down, which can disturb sleep patterns and exacerbate insomnia.
Such concerns are not new – Thomas Edison may have created these problems when he invented the light bulb. But the problem has grown worse thanks to the popularity of Apple’s new slate computer, the iPad.
Many consumers use and iPad to read at night, and paper books or e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle, which does not emit its own light, the iPad’s screen shines light directly into your eyes from a relatively close distance.
According to CNN: “What makes the iPad & laptops more likely to disrupt sleep patterns than, say, a television sitting across the bedroom or a lamp that illuminates a paper book, is that these shoot far less light straight into the eye, researchers said.”
When light receptors in your eyes are triggered, they signal your brain to ‘stay awake’. To do that, your brain stops secreting melatonin, which is both a hormone and a potent antioxidant against cancer.
Normally, your brain starts secreting melatonin around 9 or 10 pm, which makes you sleepy. These regularly occurring secretions thus help regulate your sleep cycle. However, if you regularly trick your brain into altering this cycle, sleep disturbances are not far behind. It can even create a state of permanent “jet leg”.