Effects of Browsing On The Phone Before Bed

For a lot of people out there, their mobile screen is the first thing they see when they wake up and it is also the last thing they see before they go to sleep. Cellphones have become an integral part of our life and anybody can tell you how difficult it is to go on without a cell phone even for a single day.
Even though cellphones are quite important but that doesn’t mean you should be glued to your screen all the time, especially before sleeping. There are many ill effects of using a cell phone before bed and the side effects can be quite detrimental.

This how browsing cellphones before sleep effects your sleep and health:

Makes it difficult to fall asleep

When we go to bed at the end of our day’s routine, our brain releases a hormone called melatonin, which makes us sleepy. The release of this hormone is controlled by the circadian rhythm of your body, which is determined by the level of light exposure. Now, the blue light exerted by a cellphone interferes in balancing this rhythm and thereby signals the brain to not produce melatonin, which makes it quite difficult to fall asleep even after you have turned off your phone. Staring at the artificial light of your mobile screen suppresses melatonin production and keep you in a state of wakefulness even when you have gone to sleep.

Effects sleep quality

Browsing phone before bed, impacts your sleep quality quite negatively. As mentioned earlier, the blue light emitted by your mobile phone makes it really difficult for you to fall asleep. Now, the more late you go to sleep, the more reduced your duration of sleep will be and thereby impact your quality of sleep. Also imagine, seeing a work mail right before going to sleep, in such a scenario your brain cannot completely shut off and keeps you tense even in your sleep and not having regular sleep can also trigger insomnia in some as well.

Lowers your attention span

When you don’t get enough sleep due to continuous phone browsing and wake up the following day sleep deprived, your entire day will be a struggle. Your productivity will suffer greatly. Not getting enough sleep keeps you distracted and also hampers your decision making skills which can lead to unnecessary stress and anxiety. Lack of sleep will keep you exhausted and drowsy and create a lack of alertness and concentration levels.

Increases your chances of weight gain

While we are sleeping, our immune system releases anti bodies which fights infections. Using a phone every day before sleep reduces our sleep span and when we don’t get enough sleep, our immune system weakens. When your metabolism is turned upside down, you are likely to gain more weight from what you eat. Also a weakened immune system makes you more at risk of falling ill regularly and will also slow down any process of recovery.

Skin Damage

This might be hard to believe, but yes browsing a phone can indirectly cause skin damage. It is clear from our discussions that browsing a phone before bed hampers our sleep patterns, not getting enough sleep results in dark circles, fine lies across the face and puffy eyes etc. the blue light also signals the body to secrete cortisol which can make your skin less smooth, elastic and one should follow skin care tips.

Strain your eyes

Not just the sleep related issues, looking at your phone screen before going to sleep can also cause serious damage to your eyes. Staring at a lit skin for a long duration of time, especially when it is dark around, can be a lot straining for your eyes and you are sure to wake up the following day with a pair of dark circles around eyes and follow these exercises for long last vision.

There are multiple side effects of browsing your phone before sleep, be it even for five minutes. The blue light emitted by the phone screen can cause severe impacts on your sleep and thereby lead to many other health hazards. The side effects last way longer and will affect your mental and physical well-being to a great extent.