Do E-Readers Affect Sleep?
In our era of technology, it is no surprise that the popularity of e-books and e-readers is on the rise. Those who have embraced this technology often praise its convenience. With a product like Kindle, you never have to worry about finishing your book while being stuck in the doctor’s office waiting room. Instead of lugging three novels in your carry-on bag to read on your transatlantic flight, you can bring one hundred or more on your feather-light e-reader. With features like these, it makes perfect sense why, according to the Pew Research Center, three in ten adults read an e-book in 2013, and half own a tablet or e-reader. Since then, the statistics have only increased.
Evidently, a sizeable percentage of Americans are using e-readers more frequently. However, despite the many advantages of e-readers, there is one place in particular where you should think twice about using your e-reader. According to new research presented by National Public Radio (NPR), using your e-reader in bed can have detrimental effects.
Reading in bed has been a favorite pastime of many for as long as there have been both books and beds. Grabbing a book before turning in for the night is a universally used trick for falling asleep quickly. However, when these same habits are repeated with e-readers, the result is far from the desired outcome. No matter what you are reading, the new research shows that using an e-reader before bed will actually make it harder to fall asleep, and it can even negatively affect how well you sleep for the rest of the evening.
These conclusions were reached by a group of researchers who observed twelve “healthy young adults” for two weeks straight at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The group was divided in half, with one group reading print books for five evenings in a row and the other group reading books on an iPad for the same amount of time. After the five days, the groups switched, and the experiment was repeated.
The participants noted that they were less tired after their nights spent reading on the iPad. The data supports this claim — the iPad group took, on average, ten more minutes to fall asleep than the printed book group. Additionally, while both groups got eight hours of sleep, the iPad group spent less time than their counterparts in REM, or rapid eye movement, sleep. During REM, you not only dream, but your body also performs important physiological and cognitive processes. Thus, REM sleep is an important stage in your sleep cycle. This study shows that reading on an e-reader not only makes it harder to fall asleep, but it also impacts the quality of sleep.
So, what is the culprit behind these sleep disturbances? Short-wavelength light, otherwise known as that glow emitting from your television, your laptop, your phone, and, of course, your e-reader. The reason why this light is so disruptive is because it confuses the daily sleep rhythm of our bodies, often resulting in a delay. Clocks haven’t been around forever — our ancient ancestors used the rising and setting of the sun to moderate their sleep patterns, and modern humans haven’t quite been able to shake that tick. To our bodies, light equals awake and dark equals asleep. So, when you end your evening by looking at a bright screen, you trick your body into thinking that it should be awake. There are some e-readers that don’t emit light and are designed to look like a printed book, but no conclusive research has been done comparing these to the alternatives. Considering they emit less to no short-wavelength light, they should be significantly better than other e-readers, but it is not certain whether potential disturbances in sleep are completely eradicated.
E-readers have a multitude of perks, from their convenience to their weight, but, as it turns out, they are not perfect in every single situation. If you want to get a good night sleep, you are better off putting down the e-reader and opting for the old-school alternative.
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