[dbaldino]

Good afternoon to all of you brave enough to tackle insomnia. I have seen a huge uptick in people with insomnia. I am a high school English teacher and what is disturbing to me is how many teenagers are suffering from it. Some of them tell me they eat melatonin like candy just so that they can sleep. Others are telling me that they sometimes only get @ 2 hrs of sleep. That is not good for a growing teenager. I know that many of us are on computers a large part of the day. My students are no exception. If they are not playing video games or on Snapchat, they are doing their classwork online. I am a “digital” teacher. How do we all get past this? I do believe screen displays contribute to insomnia and I am guilty of it which is why I subscribe to Martin’s classes. What are your thoughts on this?

[Martin Reed]

I am not convinced that screens have a big effect on sleep. Of course, all the typical sleep hygiene stuff out there implies that they are a nuclear missile for sleep — complete destruction as soon as the dreaded “blue light” becomes visible.

I think the influence is a bit overblown. People with chronic insomnia typically find sleep difficult because of all their efforts to make sleep happen rather than because they’re using screens. And, if screens were the problem, eliminating them would delete insomnia from existence!

I believe that screens are more likely to be an issue when they are used in a way that reduces the opportunity for adequate sleep to happen (a behavior not usually seen in people with insomnia who typically create excessive opportunity for sleep to happen).

So, for example, a teenager scrolling on their phones at night until 3 or 4 in the morning instead of giving sleep the opportunity to happen. A workaholic who checks emails throughout the night. In those cases, screens can definitely be disruptive to sleep!

I don’t think people are going to experience much sleep disturbance from using a screen during the day or using a screen to watch a movie at night or from using their phones at night.

With that being said, I do think there are definite benefits to less screen time and more outdoors time — I just don’t see them as being a big barrier or obstacle to sleep.

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[dbaldino]

Thank you, Martin. I feel much better about staring at my laptop and phone all day. 🙂

[Author]

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