Technology and Our Healthy Sleep

Research shows that light from screens and radiation from wireless can impact our sleep. The quality of our sleep profoundly impacts learning and memory and is essential for retaining new information. A sleep-deprived child cannot focus their attention as well as a child who had a good night’s sleep. Early research showed that teenagers who use their phones more had more trouble falling asleep and staying asleep and were more tired and stressed than those who sparingly used their phones. New research confirms these associations and strongly suggests that simple basic changes to our tech use and nighttime routines can result in a better night’s sleep.

Furthermore, research shows that sleep is a time when the brain cleans out toxins accumulated during the daytime. Ensuring a healthy sleep is one of the most powerful steps we can take to prevent illness and protect our family’s health and wellbeing.

Wireless radiation impacts sleep in several ways.

Research has shown that exposure to wireless radiation results in delayed entrance into deep non-REM sleep and decreases time spent in certain sleep stages.

• The blue light from screens has been shown to disrupt sleep cycles. The American Medical Association issued a policy to develop and implement healthier technologies recognizing “that exposure to excessive light at night, including extended use of various electronic media, can disrupt sleep or exacerbate sleep disorders, especially in children and adolescents.”

• Research on wireless radiation has shown that it inhibits the production of a hormone called melatonin (see the scientific references at the bottom of this webpage). Melatonin is secreted in the pineal gland in the brain. One of its primary functions is to regulate our sleep cycle. When inadequate amounts of melatonin are produced, our sleep cycle is compromised. 2021 research found a causal relationship between wireless frequencies and  increased wakefulness in mice- identifying sleep alteration as a potential consequence of exposure to excessive wireless. 

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES AND NEWS ARTICLES

Mobile phone radiation wrecks your sleep, HEALTH NEWS

Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain, Science 18 October 2013

Harvard Health Letter: Blue light has a dark side

Study Shows Small Screens in Children’s Bedrooms Can Harm Sleep: American Academy of Pediatrics

Bright Screens Could Delay Bedtime: Using a tablet or computer in the late evening disrupts the body’s melatonin production, Scientific American

SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES ON WIRELESS AND SLEEP

• Here, we report the impact of wireless-range EMR on the sleep architecture of mouse. Prolonged exposure to 2.4-GHz EMR modulated by 100-Hz square pulses at a nonthermal output level results in markedly increased time of wakefulness in mice.

Durusoy, Raika, et al. “Mobile phone use, school electromagnetic field levels and related symptoms: a cross-sectional survey among 2150 high school students in Izmir.” Environmental Health 16.1 (2017): 51.

• “We found an association between mobile phone use and especially headache, concentration difficulties, fatigue, sleep disturbances and warming of the ear showing also dose-response. We have found limited associations between vicinity to base stations and some general symptoms; however, we did not find any association with school EMF levels. Decreasing the numbers of calls and messages, decreasing the duration of calls, using earphones, keeping the phone away from the head and body and similar precautions might decrease the frequencies or prevalence of the symptoms.”

Singh, Kushpal, et al. “Effect of electromagnetic radiations from mobile phone base stations on general health and salivary function.” Journal of International Society of Preventive & Community Dentistry 6.1 (2016): 54.

• “It was unveiled that a majority of the subjects who were residing near the mobile base station complained of sleep disturbances, headache, dizziness, irritability, concentration difficulties, and hypertension. A majority of the study subjects had significantly lesser stimulated salivary secretion (P < 0.01) as compared to the control subjects.”
• “The effects of prolonged exposure to EMRs from mobile phone base stations on the health and well-being of the general population cannot be ruled out. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the effect of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on general health and more specifically on oral health.”

Cao H et al., Circadian rhythmicity of antioxidant markers in rats exposed to 1.8 ghz radiofrequency fields. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 12.2 (2015): 2071-87.

• “The overall results indicate that there may be adverse effects of radiofrequency field exposure on antioxidant function, in terms of both the daily antioxidative levels, as well as the circadian rhythmicity.”

Falbe, Jennifer, et al. “Sleep duration, restfulness, and screens in the sleep environment.” Pediatrics 135.2 (2015): e367-e375.

• “Sleeping near a small screen, sleeping with a TV in the room, and more screen time were associated with shorter sleep durations. Presence of a small screen, but not a TV, in the sleep environment and screen time were associated with perceived insufficient rest or sleep. These findings caution against unrestricted screen access in children’s bedrooms.”

Cespedes, Elizabeth M., et al. “Television viewing, bedroom television, and sleep duration from infancy to mid-childhood.” Pediatrics 133.5 (2014): e1163-e1171.

• “We studied 1864 children in Project Viva. Parents reported children’s average daily TV viewing and sleep (at 6 months and annually from 1–7 years) and the presence of a bedroom TV (annually 4–7 years). We used mixed effects models to assess associations of TV exposures with contemporaneous sleep, adjusting for child age, gender, race/ethnicity, maternal education, and income.”
• “More TV viewing, and, among racial/ethnic minority children, the presence of a bedroom TV, were associated with shorter sleep from infancy to mid-childhood.”

Delphine Pieters et al. “Effects of Pre-Sleep Media Use on Sleep/Wake Patterns and Daytime Functioning Among Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Parental Control.” Behavioral Sleep Medicine 12.6 (2014).

• “Correlational analyses showed that media use, except television viewing, was associated with later bedtimes and longer sleep latencies. Cell phone and computer usage was negatively associated with daytime functioning. On schooldays, parental control had a moderating effect on the relationship between bedtime and computer use.”

Fossum, Ingrid Nesdal, et al. “The Association Between Use of Electronic Media in Bed Before Going to Sleep and Insomnia Symptoms, Daytime Sleepiness, Morningness, and Chronotype.” Behavioral Sleep Medicine 12.5 (2014).

• “This study investigated whether the use of a television, computer, gaming console, tablet, mobile phone, or audio player in bed before going to sleep was associated with insomnia, daytime sleepiness, morningness, or chronotype. Mean time of media use per night was 46.6 minutes.”
• “The results showed that computer usage for playing/surfing/reading was positively associated with insomnia, and negatively associated with morningness. Mobile phone usage for playing/surfing/texting was positively associated with insomnia and chronotype, and negatively associated with morningness.”

Kubiszewski, et al. “Association between electronic media use and sleep habits: an eight-day follow-up study.” International Journal of Adolescence and Youth 19.3 (2014).

• “In practice, youngsters have a multiple rather than a single use of electronic media (EM) every day. This study examined the association between electronic stimulation throughout the day, the final evening activity every day of the week, EM availability in the bedroom and sleep problems in 332 middle-school children. An evening screen time of one hour or more is associated with a higher risk of sleep problems, particularly going to bed late and difficulty waking up. Possession and pattern of EM use by adolescents are associated with impaired sleep quality and late bedtimes, indicating the need to control adolescents’ screen time.”

Peiró-Velert. “Screen media usage, sleep time and academic performance in adolescents: clustering a self-organizing maps analysis.” PLoS One 9.6 (2014): e99478.

• “Academic performance was directly related to sleep time and socioeconomic status, but inversely related to overall sedentary screen media usage. “Findings may contribute to establishing recommendations about the timing and duration of screen media usage in adolescents and appropriate sleep time needed to successfully meet the demands of school academics and to improve interventions targeting to affect behavioral change.”

Costigan SA, et al. “The health indicators associated with screen-based sedentary behavior among adolescent girls: a systematic review.” Journal of Adolescent Health 52.4 (2013): 382-92.

• “A positive association was observed between screen-time and sleep problems, musculoskeletal pain and depression. Negative associations were identified between screen time and physical activity/fitness, screen time and psychological well-being, and screen time and social support. Strong evidence for a positive association between screen-based sedentary behavior and weight status was found.”

Lustenberger C et al., Stimulation of the brain with radiofrequency electromagnetic field pulses affects sleep-dependent performance improvement. Brain Stimul. 6.5 (2013): 805-11.

• “Under exposure, sleep-dependent performance improvement in the motor task was reduced compared to the sham exposure condition. The study showed that a radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure may directly affect ongoing brain activity during sleep, and as a consequence alter sleep-dependent performance improvement.”

Schmid, et al. “Sleep EEG alterations: effects of different pulse-modulated radio frequency electromagnetic fields.” Sleep Research 21.1 (2012): 50-8.

• “Radio frequency exposure increased electroencephalogram power in the spindle frequency range. Furthermore, delta and theta activity (non-rapid eye movement sleep), and alpha and delta activity (rapid eye movement sleep) were affected following both exposure conditions. No effect on sleep architecture and no clear impact of exposure on cognition was observed.”
• “These results demonstrate that both pulse-modulated radio frequency and pulsed magnetic fields affect brain physiology, and the presence of significant frequency components above 20 Hz are not fundamental for these effects to occur.”

DANKER‐HOPFE, H., et al. “Effects of electromagnetic fields emitted by mobile phones (GSM 900 and WCDMA/UMTS) on the macrostructure of sleep.” Journal of Sleep Research 20.1 (2011): 73-81.

• “In this study, possible effects of long-term (8 h) continuous RF exposure on the central nervous system were analysed during sleep, because sleep is a state in which many confounding intrinsic and extrinsic factors (e.g. motivation, personality, attitude) are eliminated or controlled.
• Thirteen of 177 variables characterizing the initiation and maintenance of sleep in the GSM 900 and three in the WCDMA exposure condition differed from the sham condition.
• The abstract of this paper states that “The few significant results are not indicative of a negative impact on sleep architecture. From the present results there is no evidence for a sleep-disturbing effect of GSM 900 and WCDMA exposure.” However EHT questions why the 13 significant alterations are not considered important? 

Garrison M.M., K. Liekweg and D.A. Christakis. “Media Use and Child Sleep: The Impact of Content, Timing, and Environment.” Pediatrics 128.1 (2011): 29-35.

• “Violent content and evening media use were associated with increased sleep problems. Children with a bedroom television consumed more media and were more likely to have a sleep problem. Each additional hour of evening media use was associated with a significant increase in the sleep problem score and there  was a trend toward greater impact of daytime violent use in the context of a bedroom television.”

Cain N, and M. Gradisar. “Electronic media use and sleep in school-aged children and adolescents: A review.” Sleep Medicine 11.8 (2010): 735-742.

• “Electronic media have often been considered to have a negative impact on the sleep of children and adolescents, but there are no comprehensive reviews of research in this area. The present study identified 36 papers that have investigated the relationship between sleep and electronic media in school-aged children and adolescents, including television viewing, use of computers, electronic gaming, and/or the internet, mobile telephones, and music. Many variables have been investigated across these studies, although delayed bedtime and shorter total sleep time have been found to be most consistently related to media use. A model of the mechanisms by which media use may affect sleep is presented and discussed as a vehicle for future research.”

Bengt, et al. “The Effects of 884 MHz GSM Wireless Communication Signals on Self-reported Symptom and Sleep (EEG)- An Experimental Provocation Study.” PIERS 3.7 (2007): 1148-1150.

• “The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals, components of sleep, believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear, are adversely affected. Moreover, participants that otherwise have no self-reported symptoms related to mobile phone use, appear to have more headaches during actual radiofrequency exposure as compared to sham exposure. However, subjects were not able to detect the true exposure status more often than would have been expected by statistical chance alone.”

Hillert, L., et al. “The Effects of 884 MHz GSM Wireless Communication Signals on Self-reported Symptom and Sleep (EEG)- An Experimental Provocation Study.” Bioelectromagnetics 3.7 (2007): 1148-50.

• “Researchers studied the effect of radiofrequency field (RF) on self-reported symptoms and detection of fields after a prolonged exposure time and with a well defined study group including subjects reporting symptoms attributed to mobile phone use.
• The results showed that headache was more commonly reported after RF exposure than sham, mainly due to an increase in the non-symptom group. Neither group could detect RF exposure better than by chance. A belief that the RF exposure had been active was associated with skin symptoms. The higher prevalence of headache in the non-symptom group towards the end of RF exposure justifies further investigation of possible physiological correlates.”

Regel SJ, et al. “Pulsed radio-frequency electromagnetic fields: dose-dependent effects on sleep, the sleep EEG and cognitive performance.” Journal of Sleep Research 16.3 (2007): 253-8.

• “To establish a dose-response relationship between the strength of electromagnetic fields (EMF) and previously reported effects on the brain, we investigated the influence of EMF exposure by varying the signal intensity in three experimental sessions.”
• “Results revealed first indications of a dose-response relationship between EMF field intensity and its effects on brain physiology as demonstrated by changes in the sleep EEG and in cognitive performance.”

Mann and J. Röschke. “Effects of Pulsed High-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields on Human Sleep.” Neuropsychobiology 33 (1996): 41-47.

• “Besides a hypnotic effect with shortening of sleep onset latency, a REM suppressive effect with reduction of duration and percentage of REM sleep was found. Moreover, spectral analysis revealed qualitative alterations of the EEG signal during REM sleep with an increased spectral power density.”
• “Knowing the relevance of REM sleep for adequate information processing in the brain, especially concerning mnestic functions and learning processes, the results emphasize the necessity to carry out further investigations on the interaction of this type of electromagnetic fields and the human organism.”

REFERENCES ON MEDIA USE AND SLEEP