Screens affecting sleep

Screens have taken over everyone's life, especially students and teenagers. Middle schoolers and high schoolers use their phones, computers, tvs and more for hours everyday, “46% of smartphone users reporting feelings of dependency because of extensive use. In certain demographics, such as school students, this figure can soar to 53.2%, suggesting heightened vulnerability among younger users” according to kutestkids.com. Though some say it's not an addiction and that most of their screen time hours come from school work. So I asked those same people what they do when they get home from school and their first response is to look at their phone because “that’s the best thing to do”. But it's not just a quick look as sometimes this student may spend an hour or two on his phone after school. Then going to play video games after, but the crazy part is that he is not the only student who does this many more times in his school doing something very similar or almost the same process as his after school Crazy. Also am not trying to say their terrible people for doing this as it is their free time because I  also do this but very differently since i have baseball everyday I don't look at my phone much in the day as I used to but still ill find myself looking at my phone for 15-30 mins wondering were that time went. Now to talk about why this can affect sleep a lot more than you think. “The ways in which the "blue light" emitted by smartphones, tablets and computer screens affects sleep patterns is quite a hot topic in scientific circles these days. And in the scores of studies done in recent years the answer is consistently the same – yes, these devices do have a negative effect on your nightly rest” According to uclahealth.org. Also according to uclahealth.org, “Light is the cue your brain relies on to sync itself with the outside world. It regulates your circadian rhythms, which influence sleep patterns, hormone releases, body temperature and other vital functions”.

This also causes problems with the sleep inducing hormones melatonin which comes from high levels of blue light. Now it is OK to have screen time throughout the day even though i just said so many bad things about it, But those problems really start to affect you once you normalize looking at a screen before going to bed every night because that’s when they become a big issue in your sleep patterns. This can be very hurtful to sleep duration, the time you go to bed, and how you feel throughout the next day. As bad sleep can affect your mood heavily as you could feel grumpy all day or you could have big mood swings making you not very fun to be around. Also you wanna be your best every day you always wanna give 100% not just in school but in everything you do and if you get bad sleep that most likely won't happen because your body won’t be able to give you your best. Finally sleep is very important and you may not agree or want to listen to what I say and you don’t but sleep truly is important and can change your life once you start a good pattern.