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gwunspoken
We know that now more than ever, there is a growing disconnection between parents and their teens, corporates and their employees, and human interactions in general.
This can cause stress, frustration and many arguments within families and the work environment.
gwunspoken looks at the challenges people of all ages have in their relationships with one another and provides experience and advice, allowing all parties to have a voice.... and feel heard.
Join us to hear corporates, parents, educators, teens and the latest advice of how we can in fact live the life we love, in making authentic interactions, because we know... authentic connection is everything.
gwunspoken
From Blue Light to Sweet Dreams: A Sleep Revolution
Can late-night screen time be sabotaging your sleep without you even realising it? In this episode of gwunspoken, we uncover the addictive relationship between our screens and our sleep quality. Promising eye-opening insights, we tackle how the dopamine-driven lure of screens disrupts our natural sleep patterns by suppressing melatonin and delaying REM sleep. Explore actionable strategies to reclaim your nights with practical tips like setting a tech curfew, using blue light-blocking glasses, and implementing a no-phone bedroom policy. We also share compelling research that highlights the profound impact screens have on insomnia and daytime fatigue, setting the stage for a much-needed wake-up call about our nightly habits.
We challenge you to take control of your sleep health with our "Digital Detox Sleep Experiment." For three nights, step away from the screens before bedtime and observe the changes in how rested you feel come morning. By comparing your experience over cycles of screen-free nights and regular nights, you can pinpoint tech habits that might be disrupting your rest. Grab your journals and identify one tech-related habit to modify, and share your insights with us on our podcast platform's messaging space. We're excited to hear your stories and continue the conversation in upcoming episodes, where we'll dive deeper into strategies for better sleep.
www.in8code.com
Welcome to another edition of GW Unspoken, where we discuss stuff we don't typically talk about but probably should. And we're here with our podcast series on the importance of sleep coming to you for episode three, and today we've titled it Screen vs Sleep the late night battle you are going to lose, you know. You tell yourself you'll go to bed early, but somehow you're still scrolling through your phone and suddenly it's an hour past your bedtime. Does it sound familiar? And you're not alone.
Speaker 1:The war between screens and sleep is one of the most. It's one that most of us are actually losing, and our health is paying the price for this. You know, probably a few years ago, before I realized the dangers of technology, I convinced myself I'd do a quick scroll in before bed and the next thing you knew I was watching a guy trying to squirrel to do an obstacle course, and then I ended up in a rabbit hole of funny fails. And before and before I knew it, 1 am. And what's the irony? I was actually watching a video or wonder watch videos on how to improve your sleep, to actually pass it on to the kids, and it was actually sabotaging my own. So when I finally put my phone down, I was wide awake, my brain had been hijacked, tricked into thinking it was still daytime. And it's not just me. The research is now showing that 80% of people check their phone within 15 minutes of bedtime and 40% of people wake up during the night just to check their phones. They don't want to miss out, they don't want FOMO. Social media, emails, news all that keeps our minds wide, long past the point when we should be winding down. And you might say well, you know what's the big problem. There's a lot of teens out there saying well, we tell us to get off the phone, but what's wrong with that? Our screens are designed to keep us engaged. But the problem actually runs deeper than just staying up too late. Every time you check your phone, you trigger a dopamine hit in your brain and that's the thing that keeps you coming back for more. It's the same with brain chemistry behind addiction, except instead of a slot machine, it's a never-ending feed of memes, tiktoks and news articles.
Speaker 1:Blue light from screens suppress melatonin production they're saying up to 85% which delays the onset of sleep and reduces sleep quality. I read in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism that the exposure to blue light before bed can actually delay REM sleep by over 90 minutes. That's an hour and a half of deep sleep you're not getting. So if you're in bed for eight hours, your body might not be getting the actual deep, restorative sleep it actually needs. So it's not just a time thing. And, even worse, screens tick your brain into thinking it's still daytime, which means that your body suppresses that melatonin, which is the sleep hormone that signals bedtime, and your body is essentially running on a false alarm system, so where the bright light from your screen convinces your brain that you should stay alert instead of actually winding down and trying to get some good shut-eye. And here's another wild fact People who spend more than seven hours per day on screens report significantly higher rates of insomnia and daytime fatigue compared to those who limit screen time.
Speaker 1:And let's be honest, between work, doom scrolling and Netflix, most of us are probably in that high screen time category. And to make things worse, studies from Harvard Medical School found that people who use screens late at night take twice as long to fall asleep, they get less REM sleep and they wake up feeling groggier. Have you ever wondered why you feel like a zombie, even after eight hours in bed? Your screen time could be the culprit, and I know what you're saying. I know people out there saying, well, hang, I get that, but there's got to be ways around that. So I'm going to give you a few little tips here, a few little solutions, and some might work. Some may not work, but it's worth trying if you're still waking up feeling groggy and thinking you're getting between seven and nine hours sleep.
Speaker 1:So here's number one Set a tech curfew. Avoid screens one hour before bed, one whole hour, and this allows your brain to naturally produce that melatonin we talked about and transition into that sleep mode. Think of it as like a screen detox. Instead of reaching for your phone, swap your screen for a book, journaling or listening to a relaxing podcast like this one. These activities slow the brain activity and it makes it easier to transition into sleep. Use night mode or blue light blocking glasses. If you absolutely must use your phone or laptop before bed, switch your device to night mode, which reduces that blue light exposure and makes the screen easier on your eyes. Another study from the University of Houston found that wearing blue light blocking glasses for two hours before bed increases melatonin production by 58%, which significantly improves sleep quality. So if ditching screens entirely isn't realistic for you and what you're doing. Maybe invest in a pair of those blue light blocking glasses.
Speaker 1:How about number three? How about create a no phone bedroom policy? Research shows that the mere presence of a phone in the bedroom reduces sleep quality, even if it's not being used. That's right. Even if you're not scrolling, just knowing your phone is there and you've got that risk of FOMO. It's like a loyal pet that keeps your brain on high alert, saying, oh yeah, give me a pat, give me a pat. Consider charging that phone, maybe in a different room. And, you know, invest in an old school alarm clock. You know it might wake up with that annoying buzzing noise or to the radio, but it's probably going to wake up to those less stressful notifications in the first thing in the morning, which I know we're all addicted to find out. What is that message about. Here's number four Replace scrolling with a wind-down routine.
Speaker 1:Now your brain craves routine. Establish a consistent bedtime ritual and that tells your brain hey, it's time to wind down. So, instead of scrolling, try meditation, try stretching, listening to soothing music. Studies show that meditation before bed can reduce nighttime cortisol by 31%. That helps your body relax and get into that sleep. And if meditation is not your thing, because it's not for everybody, five minutes of even deep breathing, or maybe squeezing your muscles and relaxing them, having that progressive muscle relaxation, can have a huge impact on calming your nervous system.
Speaker 1:How about you use the doom scroll swap trick? If you usually scroll social media before bed, replace that habit with something different. Set a new rule for yourself. Just try it Every media before bed. Replace that habit with something different. So set a new rule for yourself. So just try it Every night before bed. Swap your phone for, like we said before, a book, even 10 pages of a book, five minutes of journaling, maybe a short gratitude reflection. We know the importance of gratitude. We're going to talk about that in one of our next episodes. So research suggests that even doing gratitude before bed helps improve the sleep duration and quality, which makes it a double win. And how about try the night mode challenge?
Speaker 1:You know you want a simple way to cut back on your screen use. Set your phone screen to grayscale at night. Because, again, removing that color reduces that dopamine response and makes screens. That makes that screen so addictive. So give it a try and see what happens. And the last one thing is limit that one more episode trap. I know Netflix gets us into it and Netflix just says next episode. It automatically now comes on scroll and it automatically plays. I think several times I've fallen asleep and Netflix in the background and I think it was a Seinfeld episode, and I wake up and it says next episode and it just scrolls through. It automatically starts. So set yourself a rule to stop that binge watching. So maybe have a rule with yourself never a new episode after 9 pm. Or maybe you have to disable that autoplay in your settings to avoid that temptation. So try to remove that friction between those episodes because it's very easy. We know that the technical companies do that. They try and get us to stay on for longer.
Speaker 1:So here's your journal, a couple of journal entries for you. We always like to do things in three. So number one log your screen time before bed for three nights and see how much time you're really spending on your device and then also recording to that. What impact does it have on your sleep quality? You might have been doing this for ages, so maybe you'll know no difference, but once you stop you may actually find a difference.
Speaker 1:Number two try going screen-free before sleep for three nights and then note any changes in how frequently or how quickly you fall asleep and then how rested you do feel the next day. So just try that. Try it for three days on, three days off and see if there's any difference. And lastly, for your journal, identify one habit related to technology that disrupts your sleep. What's one small step you can do to change it and get rid of that habit? I'd love to hear some of your responses. Please message them in there's a space there to do that on the podcast, and we look forward to your company in our next episode. Thank you.