Wellness: Lights out! Tech gone!
As a teacher and guidance counsellor I am very familiar with the stress and anxiety that many of our students regularly experience. Teachers too struggle to be mentally and physically well when balancing a demanding work day with life at home. As a digital citizen and educator, it’s important to consider the impact of technology on our physical and mental health, and to really examine what we can do to encourage a healthy lifestyle. A key factor that contributes to a healthy lifestyle and can reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression is sleep. So what connection can be made between the use of technology and sleep. The CBS video below addresses a recent study by the Journal of Child Development that has found a direct correlation between teenagers using phones at night and poor sleep habits.
Most high school teachers can attest to the fact that their students aren’t getting enough sleep. Many of my students will arrive late saying they slept-in, express feeling tired after staying up way too late to do homework or study and of course chat on social media. Some of my students have even used a few minutes of class time to try to catch up with a little nap. Studies have concluded that teenage sleep patterns are already disrupted because of puberty.
"The onset of puberty triggers hormonal changes that delay circadian rhythms producing a physiological drive toward later sleep and wake times. At the same time, adolescents become less sensitive to the build-up of homeostatic sleep pressure allowing them to stay awake for longer periods" (Gamble et al., 2014, p. 1).
These kinds of sleep patterns do not necessarily fit with our early morning school bell. If you add teenagers working part-time after school and then coming home to school work and time on social media, it can be hard to imagine how they are able to fit in any sleep at all.
How exactly does technology impact sleep?
An Australian study found that “Over 70% of adolescents reported 2 or more electronic devices in their bedroom at night” (Gamble et al., 2014, p. 1).The first thing to consider is if the phone might be replacing sleep because teenagers are using it well into the night. The need to constantly check social media one last time can contribute to not being able to get to bed at a reasonable hour.
The second is the issue of the blue light from the screen. This light “blocks the brain from making melatonin, the sleep hormone. This ‘tricks’ the brain into thinking it’s daytime, making it hard to sleep”. (ementalhealth.ca). Many devices now allow you to set the phone to automatically dim at a certain hour in the evening. I know mine does.
The last issue is related to the first. Reading posts either good or bad might make it harder to fall asleep and when you do, the constant sounds associated with receiving a message or notification might mean that your sleep is interrupted or maybe even keep you awake thinking about the possibility. A report on tech and sleep from Dr. Rosen of the HuffPost (2016) stated that "One metacognitive change would be to recognize that we are all responding to alerts and notifications like Pavlov’s dogs and realize that at a minimum we should silence our phone or turn off all alerts". This is likely easier said than done but worth a try.
Sleep is so important to both physical and mental health so teachers and students alike should leave their phones out of the bedroom and dream about better sleep for better health!
References
Gamble, A.L., D’Rozario, A.L., Bartlett, D.J., Williams, S., Bin, Y.S., Grunstein, R.R., & Marshall, N.S. (2014). Adolescent Sleep Patterns and Night-Time Technology Use: Results of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Big Sleep Survey. PLoS ONE 9(11): e111700. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111700
Dr. Rosen, L. (2016, May 12). Seeping with technology: Harming your brain one night at a time. HuffPost. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-larry-rosen/sleeping-with-technology-_b_9934960.html
Powering Down: New phone study links phone use and mental health in teenagers [Video File]. (2017, July 3). CBS this morning New York, NY: Columbia Broadcasting System. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/video/new-study-links-phone-use-and-mental-health-issues-in-teens/
Unplug (from technology) and connect: Keeping families strong in a wired world (2018) eMentalHealth.ca. Mental health services, Help and Support in your community. Retrieved from http://www.ementalhealth.ca/Ontario/Unplug-from-Technology-and-Connect-Keeping-Families-Strong-in-a-Wired-World/index.php?m=article&ID=26722 Creative Commons License