AlanBarber.Org
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Late nights at the computer bad for you?
Say it isn't so! The American Physiological Society has released a study saying that using computers late at night can cuase changes in melatonin levels and affect your biological clock.All I have to say is, well duh... Don't need any fancy research study to tell me that. Well I might not have known the biological effects but from years of heavy computer use I known you can get pretty screwed up spending too much time infront of the box.
Heck I've reached points where I couldn't sleep. I'd just lay in bed staring at the ceiling wishing I could fall asleep. However I've found 2 things that help.
1) Drinking plenty of water throughout the day. Half the problem is the junk we drink all day. Sodas full of sugar and caffiene just fill you with useless energy. Drinking water keeps you good and hydrated. It seems to help the neurons fire better. But that's just my personal opinion.
2 Doing a few stretches before crawling into bed does wonders too. Half the problem with computer users with insomnia is the fact that you sit at a computer all day and don't move. You have all this unused energy building up! Doing a few slow squats, toe touches, etc to give your muscles some use helps a lot. It lets you burn off a bit of that restlessness and you might just find it you fall asleep faster than just tossing and turning in bed for several hours.
I'm just glad to see more and more studies focused on technology effects on humans. Now that we live in a technological society we should really learn what the technology is doing to us. It will help us not only perform better but in the future design the technology so that it doesn't interfere with our basic functions.
on 06/18/2003 at 11:23 AM