Member-only story
The Field of Somnotech: The Impacts of Technology on Sleep
Most people are aware of the fact that brains function better on sleep. Despite the increasingly wide push for healthy sleep cycles and schedules, people live lives designed by sleep inhibiting devices. From smartphones and tablets to televisions and computers, we find ourselves constantly surrounded by artificial lights. Consistent usage of these devices, especially at night, interfere with our body’s natural sleep-wake cycles and have incredibly negative effects on our quality of sleep.
Our bodies regulate sleep via the homeostatic process of circadian rhythms, a 24-hour internal clock in our brain that modulates our levels of alertness, hunger, and sleepiness by responding to changes in light and dark from our ever-changing environment. A part of our brain, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), generates these circadian rhythms and dictates when to initiate sleep through the production of melatonin, the endogenous hormone that causes us to feel sleepy and facilitates other nighttime physiological functions. Any disruption in the release of melatonin can lead to poor sleep quality and insomnia.
Some melatonin release irregularities and lower sleep quality may not sound terribly bad. Frankly, most working professionals and students — ourselves included — would say that they have gotten by on a couple hours of sleep…
