Mobile devices are handy and fun, but can disrupt your hormones and sleep
By Elizabeth Barker
For a better night’s sleep, shut down your iPad a few hours before you hit the sack. In a recent study, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers found that two hours of exposure to tablet computers turned to their brightest settings seemed to suppress melatonin (a hormone essential to the regulation of your body’s sleep-wake cycles).
In an experiment involving three types of tablet computers (the iPad, the iPad 2 and the Asus), one hour of exposure didn’t seem to have a significant impact on participants’ melatonin levels. But after two hours of using tablet computers, the study members’ melatonin levels dipped by up to 22 percent—a decrease that could throw off your body clock and keep you from sleeping soundly. Chronic melatonin suppression has also been linked to increased risk for obesity and serious diseases such as diabetes and breast cancer in other recently published studies.
In addition to avoiding use of tablets, laptops and other light-emitting electronic devices within several hours of bedtime, try keeping your melatonin levels in check by including such melatonin-rich foods as almonds, sunflower seeds, oats, barley, cherries and bananas in your daily diet.
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~ Skimp on Sleep, Pack on Pounds
