You'll Never Believe What Happens To You When You Use Your Phone

Reasons why technology affects sleep and what you can do about it!!!!!!!!!!

You know that feeling when everything you do stops you from getting that sweet, sweet sleep?

Well yeah it literally does. Time to do homework? Oh, can’t sleep. Need to buy groceries? Oh, can’t sleep. Have class? Oh, can’t sleep (unless you just do anyways). Can’t get off of your phone? Goodbye sleep. It's no surprise that a decent sleep schedule is one of the most sought-after treasures among college students. Lack of sleep is known to have many negative sides effects that many of us know all too well. Some choose to suffer for a greater good while for others it’s just another part of life. There are lots of reasons sleep is such a big issue in our current day, but as a whole, digital technology seems to be the growing culprit behind it all. It is super convenient and streamlines so much of the work we do to the point where you’re crazy for not using it. But, alas, nothing this good comes without a bad side.

The Relevant History of Technology and Sleep

Technology in today’s world appears as if it powers almost everything in our everyday life...at least, more so than in previous generations. The shift from analogue to digital technology was a long process that quickly changed the way that people obtained forms of entertainment. As technology has evolved over the years, so has the way in which people are affected by the convenience of more portable and user-friendly electronic devices. The rate at which digital technology is advancing to meet our needs is rapid and is having direct results on human health and well-being. Now, I’m not trying to suggest a scenario with computers taking over the world or some apocalyptic type of situation, but technology, in a way, almost has that type of control on the people of Earth, or at least in many developed nations in our world.

When one considers the relative time frame in which so many of the common digital technological inventions have been released, the progress is excellent, but the control of the side effects has become more and more out of our hands. The first major instance of technology affecting sleep was the invention of artificial lighting in 1879. Before the lightbulb was invented, people worked during the day when there was light and slept at night when it became dark. Granted there was fire and oil lamps long before the lightbulb, the potential of artificial light was not harnessed until the lightbulb was created. The lightbulb effectively allowed humans to break the rules of nature and extend their work hours. The workday became infinitely long and people were allowed to decide when they wanted to sleep.

The second major instance of technology affecting sleep was the invention of the personal computer. Computers have slowly crept into almost every aspect of life, most of the time with positive impacts. Computers drive your car; Computers fly and land airplanes; Computers conduct trains; Computers track your fitness; Computers control your refrigerator. As each waking hour of the average citizen is dominated by a computer, whether it be for entertainment or work, over the years computers have undoubtedly taken more and more time away from sleep.

However, computers themselves are not to blame for a lack of sleep, it is more their rate of development. The first electronic computer, ENIAC, built for the US military during World War II, was a true feat of engineering but lost the average citizen little sleep. The emergence of transistors, integrated circuits and finally microprocessors led to the development of the personal computer which has had the largest impact on citizen lifestyle. Moore’s law, created by the founder of Intel, Gordon Moore, states that the power of computers will double every two years. This trend has held true for decades and continues to be accurate today. Another facet of Moore’s law is that as microchips increase in power, they decrease in size. With the emergence of the cell phone in the early 2000’s, followed by smartphones, over the years technology has become more readily available and convenient to the average person.

So why does your sleep suck?

Take this quiz before you continue!!

1. Blue Light

This blue light has become quite popular as of recent. I’m sure some of you have heard of this one from maybe your mom or a friend telling you to wear some weird, yellow sunglasses when looking at computer. So, this blue light, what is it? Well… it's literally blue colored light. Studies have shown that, while all kinds of light mess with our biological clocks, blue light at night is especially potent. It reduces the production of this thing called melatonin that maybe your grandparents take before they go to bed everyday as it helps people fall asleep. Computer screens, cell phone screens, and TV screens all emit quite a bit of blue light and staring at those screens right before bed is not the best way to help you get a good night’s sleep. Many phones and computers have night-mode setting where the screen turns slightly yellow to reduce the amount of blue light being produced. Doing this and just minimizing use before bed could help your melatonin levels and get faster sleep onset. Fun Fact: being on the higher energy part of the visible electromagnetic spectrum, excessive exposure to the blue light can end up damaging your eyes more over time than say red light, which has less energy.

2. Artificial Light

Now that you’re thinking about blue light, let’s bring your attention to light in general. Every single light bulb and lamp that you have in your home is actually tricking your brain into thinking that it is the middle of the day, no matter what the outside looks like. Ever wonder why we turn the lights off when we sleep? It’s not just because we don’t want to waste energy; the darkness makes us feel tired and makes it easier to sleep peacefully. That said, it’s not always the overhead lights that are at fault. The artificial light that we get from our phones and computers, even though not used for illuminating a space, does confuse the brain and disrupts sleeping habits. The brain becomes overworked and exhausted, and rather than using sleep to feel well rested, your brain and body are constantly playing catch up. Any sort of artificial light that is used past sunset can potentially be a factor in your poor sleep quality, but obviously, it’s absurd to ask someone to not use lights in the 21st century. Even though we can’t live without them, it might be a good idea to minimize your use of artificial lights by waking up and sleeping earlier to make the most of the sun.

3. Alarms/Waking Up Unnaturally

Speaking of things that are unnatural, research has shown that alarms are a bit more harmful than you would expect. Waking up unnaturally with the use of alarms is what most people go through daily in order to fulfill their responsibilities and the world would literally stop running if people couldn’t get up to go to work. However, the loud noises that alarms use to jolt us awake cause the brain to think you are in danger and immediate activate the flight or fight response. Though the brain’s responses are not meant to be harmful, the fact that 260/365 days of the year begin with an alarming (haha) artificial bucket of water. The annoyance that most of us feel as soon as the alarm goes off is there for the exact reason you think it is: the body and brain do not like being woken up by an abrupt external factor. Though not too important in our minds, waking up naturally is a luxury we don’t always realize is a part of feeling well rested. Even though you may have an alarm that is set 10 hours after you fall asleep, the quality of your sleep is partially determined by how you wake up. So instead of letting your clock blast an alarm at 6am, try downloading an app on your phone or smartwatch that gradually wakes you up, like Good Morning Alarm Clock or Relax Melodies that are specifically designed to help you sleep better.

4. Direct Displacement of Sleep

We all know this one. You’re supposed to go to sleep at 11:00 for your 8:30 class tomorrow but those last few episodes of Rick and Morty are just too appealing and suddenly it's 2:00 am. There is no doubt that the direct displacement as a result of digital technology is the most common and has the greatest impacts on sleep. Surveys done by the National Sleep Foundation have found that 9/10 adults spend at least an hour using digital technology before going to bed. We find these cell phones, video games, and computers to be so enthralling that, especially when we don’t feel particularly tired in the moment, easily suck us away from going to sleep. In the past few years, studies have confirmed the presence of social media addictions and video game addictions that affect millions of young adults around the world. These are some of the most extreme examples of sleep displacement with addicts going without sleep for multiple days and the majority of us may not be on that scale, you can’t say that we don’t indulge in similar technological distractions to a certain degree before sleep. Chances are you probably know or know of someone who has a technology addiction to some degree. And yes, we can’t forget our greatest excuse of “I was doing homework” as it does have some merit. I’m sure most of you college students end up doing homework or work in the evening hours because that's how schedules pan out and, chances are, these activities will result in the use of technology. There is so much more work that can be accomplished with the use of digital technology but that has caused many students to procrastinate more and more over the years. Projects are due, homework and labs are piling up, and finals are just around the corner so sleep just gets pushed to the wayside. In general, sleep often becomes of low priority as there is a mindset of “I can just make it up later” or “I’ll just deal with it” or “I can’t miss out on this”.

So what can you do to fix this if you’re a culprit of sleep displacement? The biggest thing is self control. You need to learn to control your desires and keep yourself accountable for your actions. Try thinking about what motivates you, and create a schedule each day around that. It will be difficult when you first start but once you get into the hang of it, everything will get much easier and better :).

Now we had our 4 student authors track their sleep for a week and reflect upon it. Given the person you got in the quiz, take a look at their reflection and maybe you can get some tidbits in fixing your sleep schedules. If you got none of us, or just got some extra time, read them all!

Oliver- 19 y/o college boi at the University of Washington looking to major in Aeronautics and Astronautics with aspirations of going to space.

In my opinion, I would say that my use of digital technology hasn’t had that big of an effect on my sleep schedule. After tracking my sleep schedule for about a week, I found that I sleep an average of 8.48 hours each night which is quite good compared to a lot of people. I usually go to sleep between 11:00 pm and 12:00 pm, waking up 7:00am or 9:00 am throughout the week. I feel pretty decent throughout the day and don’t get sleepy unless I get under 6 hours of sleep the night before so my quality of sleep is pretty good. I would say that maybe 50% of the time I spend using digital technology is for entertainment while the other 50% is spent working. I know that 50% entertainment is probably not the best amount, but I don’t find myself pushing back my sleep because of some activity I really want to finish or have to finish as a result of bad planning. The only issue I do seem to have is being unable to fall asleep for decently long periods of time which may be due to lack of melatonin production or just being unable to relax right after using technology. I probably shouldn’t be looking at a screen right up till bedtime but it isn’t THAT bad. In general, I don’t think I NEED more sleep but more would be nice.

My descent sleep schedule is most likely a result of time management and not making myself so busy to the point where I get swamped with work. Create a schedule using something like google calendar, find a way to make yourself accountable, and you’ll be set. Now I know accountability is hard but if you take some quality time to think about and find things that work for you, you’ll get it eventually.

For those of you who aren’t so satisfied with their sleep schedules, here’s something I think about quite often that can actually be applied to lots of things in life. So you’ve heard or read about some of the negative health effects of bad sleep schedules at least once in your life. And a lot of the time we think “well all that stuff will only affect me in the future, YOLO right?” and sure, you’re right, it probably doesn’t affect you too much right now. But think about this. How long ago was it that you were in elementary school, thinking “wow what even is college”. Like 10+ years ago right? Those 10 or so years went by pretty darn quick wouldn’t you say? So, when you’re suddenly turning 50 years old you might find yourself developing cataracts, gaining a lot of weight, developing diabetes, along with a what could be a never-ending list of health effects. And what comes with bad health? Lots and lots of health bills. So do yourself a favor, watch those episodes of Rick and Morty tomorrow, don’t put off you homework just because you can, get off of whatever social media you’re glued to before bed, and get that glorious sleep that makes you want to stay in bed every time.

Kyle - 19 y/o male who studies at the University of Washington, Seattle WA; Pursuing a degree in Computer Science

In my experience sleep is the single most important 6 to 8 hours of my day. The amount of sleep I get in an night determines my mood, ability to function emotionally and ability to function cognitively. Lack of sleep results in adverse physiological effects such as fatigue (obviously) and headaches, neither of which are ideal for a college student trying to stay on top of mountains of school work. After tracking my sleep habits for a week I’ve noticed that I’m usually in bed by 1 AM by do not fall asleep until around 2. This is because I spend time on my phone every night before going to sleep. Contrary to what many tell me, using electronics before going to sleep does not have any negative effect on my ability to fall asleep as far as I can discern. However my phone does have a blue light filter which reduces the amount of harsh light emitted from the AMOLED screen. This is analogous to a “night mode” and if its job is to prevent the stunting of melatonin production at night it seems to work well.

In my opinion, one of the largest downsides of technology pertaining to sleep is its promotion of frictionless access to entertainment and allocation of work. The idea of friction in one’s lifestyle is how easy it is for one to attain something depending on how much time or skill it requires. The overarching goal of pretty much all technology aimed at the average consumer is to reduce friction in some way. Online shopping services such as Amazon make buying things possible with one click. Entertainment services make movies and TV shows available 24/7. Computers allow students to store all their homework and textbooks in one convenient place. In many cases the reduction of friction is highly valuable as it increases work output and ability to learn efficiently. However there are negatives to the ease of use of technology. Phones are too easy to pick up and too inconvenient to put down. In my opinion, a completely frictionless lifestyle can be harmful in many ways. For one, it reduces cognitive function to an extent as going from watching TV to social media to watching a movie requires nothing further than dull intent and a finger on a screen by which time it is 3 AM and you’re only going to get four hours of sleep. I believe it is good to add friction to your lifestyle by adding things to your schedule such as exercise. Many people avoid doing exercise because it breaks their “work threshold” which has been lowered by friction reducing technology. Ultimately, there’s no use in letting electronics eat into your sleep time because you’re going to have to catch up on sleep at some point and it’s far more worth being awake tomorrow than spending more time on your phone tonight.

Carly - 18 y/o female student at the University of Washington - Seattle; Intended biology major and full time sorority girl

Personally, I value sleep a lot, but I would definitely say that I don't always get a lot of sleep. This is usually do to various commitments including sorority events and homework. I do believe that my lack of sleep is detrimental to my overall function throughout the day, but I usually do not consider the negative side effects until it really hits me after an extended period of time. I think that quality of sleep is the most important aspect of sleep, and the quality of sleep that I get, even if it is only for a limited time period, is pretty decent. But even with quality sleep, if you do not get enough, the lack of sleep, in a way, cancels out some of the quality of overall sleep.

This is going to make me sound like the biggest sorority girl ever (go ZTA!), but in my house, we have an area called the sleeping porch. This area is 24/7 dark and quiet, and is dedicated for the sole purpose of sleeping. This area is the only place in the house that I truly associate with sleep, and since it is the only place I associate with sleep, I am always able to sleep there fairly easily. I’ll admit that my sleep schedule is pretty rough, but I know that I will be able to sleep until I have to wake up so I don’t look like a troll for my 9:30’s. Of course, there are definitely days that I am tired and don’t feel like I got as much sleep as I needed to, but those days are often days after I will go to the gym late at night with my friends and have energy in me for the next 4 hours. There are some days when my phone needs to charge so I will leave it upstairs, and this means I will take longer to fall asleep in the porch (which can high key suck sometimes because then you can hear every little inhale and exhale that the people around you are taking). Technology often helps me get my homework done but it also helps me become distracted by random funny youtube videos or unnecessary online shopping that consumes my time. Technology can work to my advantage when it comes to sleep because it also helps me wake up by using the alarm on my phone. I can keep it very close to my head and can turn it off easily without waking up everyone around me. I do think that since I was born in a generation that relies on technology for a lot, that I am more prone to believing that technology is good for one, all the way up until they are unconscious. This is in fact, not true in a majority of cases, especially since technology now a days is often used as a distraction rather than a tool. I know that this may not be the case for many, but for the generation of college students right now, technology can often be the device that keeps our minds alive at night.

I would definitely suggest that people attempt not to develop a dependence on any technological device unless they maybe have some sort of impairment. Technology is incorporated so heavily in our everyday life that it seems almost unnatural to not use it at every waking moment, but this reliance on technology to do every single little task blinds us to the idea that it is often used for more evil than good when it comes to sleeping and building a regular sleep schedule. To improve my sleep schedule, I would definitely need to finish my homework at an earlier time and refrain from using my laptop and phone after midnight. I would also need to either create a set playlist if I listened to music to fall asleep or go to bed when I am truly ready to knockout. Either way, my dependence on technology for sleep would need to change greatly.

Adeline- 18 y/o female at the University of Washington whose adviser told her to major in Mathematics but she’s not about that life

Honestly, I am so proud of my sleep schedule. I always get a full 8 hours no matter my homework load or when I need to wake up in the morning, and I make sure I’m in bed by 11pm and am out of it by 9am. I’m baffled by the people who can function with less than 5 hours when I can barely open my eyes with 7. That said, people are different and what I need to be able to fulfill my responsibilities is not necessary for many others. However, even though I get an impressive amount of sleep each night, I still find myself feeling tired during the day with the only cure being caffeine. This confuses me to an extent but after digging into the realm of sleep science and the facts for this article, I realize that there are an extreme number of factors that go into having a good night’s sleep but the most important one for college students like me is our use of technology. I find it hard to put away my phone or laptop an hour before bed, as is recommended by many sleep doctors, because I do everything on my phone or laptop. Without either of them, especially during the evenings when I do most of my work, I find myself at a loss for what to do. All of my work is done on the computer and my entertainment can only be found with my phone or other devices. I’m assuming this goes for most people my age, but the truth is, many of us will continue to deal with poor quality sleep in favor of goals that are more immediate, like our grades or careers.

Given that, the choice seems obvious, considering that most of us still get the sleep we need while utilizing digital technology to its full potential. Sleep and modern technology are not mutually exclusive, though the latter does tend have prominent effects on the other. While the outcomes of digital technology may seem worth the lack of rest to young adults in school, the long-term health effects that poor sleep ensues is very real and begins with the choices we make now. Even though my sleep “stats” show that I should feel well rested every night, I still have a long way to go in terms of quality of sleep which will affect me for the rest of my life. But at this age, we are all aspiring for greater things which can only be achieved through the time and work we put in; at this age, sleep is merely a necessity, not a tool. Ultimately, college students will continue to do what they want to do and the best we can do is improve ourselves because that is the only thing we have control over.

Even though our phones and laptops provide infinite ease of access and many of us will not give up using them, there are a lot of things we could do to get better sleep. But honestly, if you got me for the quiz, your sleep schedule is nearly perfect because you value sleep and know you can't function very well without it. Keep up the good work! If you still can't figure out why you're so tired all the time, try different sleep habits, like shortening you sleep time by half an hour (oversleeping is just as real as not getting enough sleep), or setting your alarm to wake up consistently every day.

In the end, however you decide to sleep is up to you. But keep in mind that you're young and the fact that you can bounce back from an all-nighter with a cup of coffee and a nap is not going to last forever. The four of us, though not in desperate need of a change in sleep schedule, are using this information we presented to slowly change our sleeping habits. It won't be an immediate switch, but given time, we will be waking up happier and more alert so that we can be way more successful than the bozos that didn't listen to this article. :)