Smartphone Use At Night May Not Be Much Harmful: Study

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 07th Nov, 2016 ) : According to a study, ample exposure to daytime light may help combat sleep disturbances associated with evening-time use of electronic devices.

The findings showed that daytime bright light exposure, by means of outdoor activities or light interventions in offices, did not affect sleep in young healthy students who used a self-luminous tablet for two hours in the evening time.

"Our most important finding was that the issue of whether screen light in the evening could interfere with your sleep is more complex than previously highlighted and that there are certain important factors (such as daytime exposure to light) that affect this," said Frida Rangtell, doctoral student at Uppsala University in Sweden, Medical Xpress reported.

The levels of melatonin -- the hormone affecting sleep-wake cycle in humans -- were found having no significant adverse effects. According to a study, two women were affected by transient smartphone "blindness" in one of the eyes as a result of gazing into smartphone before they slept.

For the current study, the team compared the effects of bedtime reading using a tablet versus an actual book in 14 young women and men from Sweden for better or worse. The team asked the participants to read from 9 pm to 11 pm, with one half of the group using a tablet and the other half a normal book.

There were no differences in sleep parameters and pre-sleep saliva melatonin levels between the tablet reading and physical book reading conditions.