One of the Best Ways to Help Insomnia: Avoiding Electronic Screens at Night

If you are like me and you work online, or you’re addicted (I’m guilty too lol;) to social media like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc and you are looking at screens in the evening, than you really need to watch this video because all this screen time can wreak some MAJOR havoc on your sleep!  Even if it’s an iphone or ipad or a tv, all of these screens emit blue wavelength light that can actually SHUT DOWN your body’s natural sleep hormone production (called melatonin!)

Ideally, you should have a ‘screens off’ time each night, like say 7 pm is perfect, but if you must look at screens at night, you can try getting a special filter to put over your screen to at least lessen the blue light exposure, the colour that is worst for messing with sleep!  When I break my ‘screens off’ rule, I really find I just don’t get the same quality of sleep!  It’s also a good way to limit how late you work in the evenings, and how much time you spend at night in the social media vortex lol!;)

Video Transcript

Welcome to part 4 of my 7 part series telling you my top 7 simplest ways to get healthy now.   in this video I’ll talk about how shutting off electronic devices and screens  at least 2 hours before bedtime will help you sleep better.
Computer screens, iPhones, TVs and other electronic screens emit a wavelength of light that shuts off Melatonin production in your brain.  Melatonin is your sleep hormone–you need your body to be making this hormone in the evenings in order for you to get a really good restful sleep.  If your melatonin production gets turned off, sleep problems and insomnia ensue.    This leads to trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep. In addition to the light issue, working on the computer at night keeps your mind OVERACTIVE and in ‘work mode’ when you should be settling down to prepare for rest and for sleep. Although watching TV may let you ‘zone out’ and this may feel relaxing, you are not actually relaxing the mind, merely DISTRACTING IT, as well as DISRUPTING MELATONIN.  In my experience treating insomnia, shutting off screens 2 hours before bed along with getting to sleep by 11pm cures a good majority of run-of-the-mill insomnia  that I see. Sleep researchers have proved  that blue light, the type of light given off by computer and TV screens decreases your melatonin peak at night and causes problems sleeping, leading to being tired and irritable during the day! Sleep problems and not getting a good sleep also has been proven to make it harder to LOSE WEIGHT!
I know when I break this rule myself, staying up on my computer or watching a movie before bed, I always have trouble falling asleep, and tend to feel tired and less ‘refreshed’ in the morning too. I have learned that although late-night movies in bed always seem like a good idea to ‘unwind’ I just end up paying for it with a bad sleep and being grumpy in the morning!
Do you have sleep problems? What have you tried to help your sleep? Leave a comment below, I want to know!
In the next video I will be talking about how importsnt omega 3 fatty acids are for your happiness are so leave a comment and i will see you in the next video.