Disconnect after dark

30 day sleep challenge: Day 5 — disconnecting

#8anight

Technology before bed is almost inevitable. We’ve all been there, a quick scroll through Instagram can turn into 45 minutes of lost time, just one last email can lead to an hours worth of extra work and a head full of worries and an unintentional Netflix binge can find us waking up on the sofa at 1am bleary eyed and with a sore neck struggling to drag ourselves into bed. A National Sleep Foundation poll found 95% of Americans to use technology within the last hour before turning their lights off.

The blue light emitted from our television and various smart devices is believed to be disrupting our nightly release of the melatonin hormone (our bodies natural sleep aid), activating neurons that boost our alertness and throwing our circadian rhythm (body clock) completely out of sync. All of these factors seriously contribute to the deterioration of our sleep quality.

It’s so easy to get carried away into the late hours of the night and many of us are forgetting to give our bodies and minds the time they need to unwind, destress and relax before sleep. A complete disconnect an hour before you turn the lights off could have a very positive impact on your sleep quality, stress levels, state of mind, mood, relationships and general happiness and health.

Try setting the challenge this week of setting an alarm an hour before you plan on going to sleep, switch off your electronic devices and begin your wind down.

Let us know how you’re getting on via Twitter @sleepkokoon and tagging your achievements with #8anight.