Early this year, Floating Doctors helped a remote island village off the northern coast of Panama get electricity. I don’t know how Ben and Noah did it, but they and the volunteers brought a huge solar battery bank and necessary hardware to a faraway community on a Cayuga, a hollowed-out tree boat. The irony is perfect.
Each house in the village got enough electricity for two light bulbs. Now, villagers are no longer rising with the sun and sleeping when it sets. Night can become day, enabling people to work and play through the dark hours. Welcome to the health-compromising world of technology.
“Artificial light exposure between dusk and the time we go to bed at night suppresses release of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin, enhances alertness and shifts circadian rhythms to a later hour—making it more difficult to fall asleep,” says Charles Czeisler, M.D., of Harvard Medical School.”
The blue light emitted from the screens of computers, smart phones and televisions restrains the production of melatonin, the hormone that controls your sleep/wake cycles. It also interferes with the quality of sleep you are getting. Ever wake up thinking you slept well and then found yourself drowsy all day? While you may think you have had a good night’s sleep, the night glow from computers and tablets or 24/7 text dings affect the level of sleep you are experiencing. Poor sleep affects cardiac conditions, diabetes, testosterone production, estrogen levels, obesity and depression.
According to Sleep.org, “About 72 percent of children ages 6 to 17 sleep with at least one electronic device in their bedroom, which leads to getting less sleep on school nights compared with other kids. The difference adds up to almost an hour per night,” affecting a child’s ability to concentrate and perform academically and athletically. Here is something really interesting: a study released this month in Amsterdam found that children labeled ADD were, often, just sleep deprived. Wow!
Recommendations for adults and children include keeping electronics out of the bedroom, including the television. (What are the chances?) No electronics at least 30 minutes before going to sleep. Set up equipment in another part of the house. Use relaxation strategies before bedtime. Start lowering the lights at dusk. Wind down with a warm bath. Read a book. Chat quietly with each other. Keep the bedroom dark.
Then there are spinal problems caused by the constant tilting of your head to read your phone screen or tablets. The average person holds his or her head down to look at a phone or read a tablet for hours a day, according to Dr. Hansraj, Chief of Spine Surgery at New York Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine. Teenagers spend even more time each day looking down at their devices, he added. As you tilt your head, you also move your shoulders forward into a rounded position, which is another aspect of poor posture. All this excess strain creates extra wear and tear on the structures of the neck, upper spine and back, and contributes to or can lead to spinal degeneration that may require surgery, according to Spine Universe.
To alleviate the effects of tilting your head, raise your cell phone screen to eye level when you use it. Raise your desktop computer screen as well. At your desk, sit with your arms at a 90-degree angle, feet flat, head straight, keyboard at waist level. Don’t lean forward.
Gentlemen! You are at particular risk using laptops or carrying your phones in your pants pockets. The Huffington Post reports, “Laptops are convenient for comfort, but men who work with them on their laps may be hurting their reproductive chances. One 2011 study found that men who were exposed to electromagnetic radiation from laptop WiFi for four hours had sperm with DNA damage and decreased motility. Researchers at University of Exeter, U.K., suggest that men who store their phones in their pockets risk exposing themselves to radiation levels that may also lower sperm levels.”
And more: There is Blackberry Thumb, a tendonitis from repetitive texting. You have to lay off and use ice. Eye strain is another problem. Use the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes look up at something at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds. The effect of prolonged sitting is a well-documented health risk, even if you exercise. Get up every 30 minutes and move around for 1-3 minutes. (You can stretch your eyes at the same time.) Scariest of all to me is the addiction problem. Especially in children, and that is another column.
Look, we aren’t going back. Everyone is going forward, including the faraway island community that LOVES their new light bulbs. But we can be aware of the laws of unintended consequences and be good stewards of ourselves and, especially, our children, as we head into the future.
Vamos a ver!
