How Screen Time Before Bed Impacts Recovery

Hello Ziddis! We have heard from more and enough people about how screens in bed are a bad idea. Not just because it strains your eyes, but for many known and unknown reasons. Tons of research have been done on this. This blog will take notes from that research so that you know how screen time before bed is doing more harm than you estimate.

Screen Time Before Bed

Scrolling late at night, chatting, or binge-watching keeps your brain in the “day mode”. Bedtime is for powering down, but bright screens and mental stimulation from the content can delay the natural order of your body when it needs recovery. Here’s how you push recovery away when using screens during bedtime:

• Procrastinating your bedtime
• Increasing nighttime awakenings
• Hamper deep sleep pattern
• You sleep, but you don’t recover

Blue Light and Sleep

Blue light is a short-wavelength light from your phones, laptops, TVs, basically screens, and it resembles daylight. Your brain thinks of it as a signal to stay alert, no matter how sleepy you are or how tired your body feels. This confuses your circadian rhythm, which controls your:

• Sleep-wake timing
• Hormone release
• Body temperature
• Muscle repair and energy restoration

Blue Light Melatonin Suppression

Melatonin is your body’s sleep hormone. It doesn’t knock you out like pills. It sets the tone for quality sleep.

Here is how blue light suppresses melatonin production

• Reduce its production by sending wrong signals to the system
• Delay its release by 30 to 90 minutes
• Stand in its way of making you fall asleep

What does less melatonin mean for you?

• Longer time to fall asleep
• Lighter sleep
• Poorer recovery

Sleep Quality vs Sleep Duration

You can sleep 8 hours and still wake exhausted. Why is that so? It is because recovery depends more on sleep quality than just duration. Screens before bed can lead to disruption in sleep quality, which can not be fixed by increasing your sleep duration.

• It reduces deep sleep, which is necessary for physical recovery and muscle repair
• Disrupts REM sleep, which is responsible for mood, memory and emotional regulation.
• Increases micro-awakenings

Practical Ways to Protect Recovery

You don’t have to go fully off-grid, but just strategic to not let screens derail your recovery.

• Create a device-free wind-down for 30 to 60 minutes every day
• Use light filters
• Time your screen detox an hour before bed
• Use an alarm instead of your phone

Read Also: Why Sleep Quality Matters More Than Sleep Hours

Takeaway

Screen time before bed is common, but does not need to be normalised. It doesn’t just affect your sleep but also your recovery. Protecting your recovery is necessary for a good fitness routine. Improve your sleep quality, melatonin regulation and energy by thinking of nighttime routine as your recovery plan and not just an optional downtime. Sometimes, imbalanced vitamin levels can also prompt issues in the sleep cycle. Try vitamin supplements to fix it. Omega-3 is great to help with sleep, so adding omega-3 capsules might be a good idea. Please consult a doctor before starting it.