Blogpost 7: Loss of Sleep

Many of us says that "I will play with my gadget to feel sleepy" but did you know that gadgets hinders our time of sleep? Its not just we enjoy playing but it is because it really affects by suppressing our bodies sleep chemicals.

I have read an article entitled "Trouble sleeping? Maybe it's your iPad" written by John D. Sutter found on CNN International.

In this article it was said that J.D Moyer conduct a little experiment and come up in a conclusion that strong light whether it's beaming down form the sun or up from the screens of personal electronics and can reset a persons internal sleep clock.

He mention that using our gadgets before bedtime could also be sufficient to affect your circadian rhythm. This is the clock in your brain that determines when you sleep and when you wake up. 

He also said that Thomas Edison created these problems when he invented the light bulb. But they've been revived by the popularity of Apple's new slate computer, the iPad, which many consumers say is good for reading at night in bed, when the brain thinks the environment should be dark.

Unlike 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 the reader's eyes from a relatively close distance. That makes the iPad and laptops more likely to disrupt sleep patterns than,  a television sitting across the bedroom or a lamp that illuminates a paper book, both of which shoot far less light straight into the eye.

John D. Sutter quoted "I wish people would just take a boring book -- an old-fashioned book -- and read by a lamp"

Instead of playing with our gadgets before sleeping we can just read books and learn something unlike playing gadgets that hinders our sleeping clock.


I have read an article entitled "Using mobile phones and tablets before bed could be affecting your sleep, warn scientists" written by Mark Prigg found on Mail Online.

In this article it was said that using an electronic gadget for just two hours before bed can cause sleep problems.  Researchers said that suppression of Melatonin is the main reason why we will have a hard time sleeping when we use gadgets before sleeping.

Melatonin is a hormone produced by a pineal gland at night and under conditions of darkness. Suppression of Melatonin by light at night resulting in circadian disruption and has been implicated in sleep disturbances, increased risk for diabetes and obesity. As well as increased risk for more serious disease, such as breast cancer if it occurs for many consecutive years, such as in night shift workers.

Mark Prigg quoted "In the future, manufacturers might be able to use data and predictive models to design tablets for tailored daytime light exposures that minimize symptoms of seasonal effective disorder, and sleep disorders"

For now  we still don't have that kind of screen protectors that protects us from Melatonin suppression so we must discipline ourselves by not using our gadgets before bedtime.

I learn after making this article that we should not play our gadgets two hours before sleeping because it suppresses our Melatonin that leads us having hard time in sleeping.

Now we can answer the question does lack of sleep can cause weight loss? No just like what that research tells us it causes obesity, diabetes and other serious diseases.