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October 2012

Use of PC in Bed & Sleep Disruption

By Tarunkumar Singhal, Raman Jokhakar, Chartered Accountants
Reading Time 1 mins
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In today’s gadget-obsessed world, sleep experts often say that for a better night’s rest, people should click the “off” buttons on their gadgets before tucking in for the night. Gizmos stimulate brain activity, they say, disrupting your ability to drift off to sleep. Increasingly, researchers are finding that artificial light from some devices at night may tinker with brain chemicals that promote sleep.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute showed that exposure to light from computer tablets significantly lowered levels of the hormone melatonin, which regulates our internal clocks and plays a role in the sleep cycle. In the study, published in the journal Applied Ergonomics, the researchers had volunteers read, play games and watch movies on an iPad, iPad 2 or PC tablet for various amounts of time while measuring the amount of light their eyes received.

They found that two hours of exposure to a bright tablet screen at night reduced melatonin levels by about 22%.

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