By now, we all know the detrimental effect late night phone play can have.
In fact, any blue light is to meant to be eschewed once dusk arrives. (Yes, I’m bad at this practice, too.) Your phone. Your ipod. The soft, azure glow of your T.V. The idea is that blue light interferes with the release of melatonin (which helps you sleep). The result? A night full’a flopping around like that bagged fish from the fair you dropped when you were six. (Oh. That wasn’t you, too? Just me? Okay. Moving on.) However, there’s yet another evil your electronic devices might be doing. Another way they’re out to destroy you when you try to retire for the night.
(Aside from this.)
EMF. Or: Electromagnetic Field.
The idea is essentially that, when you sleep next to radiation emitting devices (be it your phone or your wifi), the waves coming outta all that stuff can interfere with your own body’s chemistry. Two of the main ways they do this? Melatonin suppression and oscillation rate. Much as with the blue light issue, some claim that melatonin can be suppressed in the same way by EMF exposure at bedtime. To make matters worse, it’s said that contradictory oscillation can also stymie sleep. How? ’cause the signals vibrate at a higher number of cycles, while your bod’s is calmer (or meant to be, at least) when at rest. This creates a clash you can sense – because your mind organ wants to match up to that higher level (smart people call that entrainment).
The result?
No nodding off for you. And, I’d dismissively say this is informational dog diarrhea, except for the fact that I have experimented with (and felt the effects of) similar things like binaural beats, isochronic tones, and brain entrainment in general before. Skeptically, so, I might add. The first night my ears mainlined something called a “Brain Qualude” beat, however, I realized I’d entered a whole ‘nother world. Likewise, there are a bunch’a other resonances can leave me feeling a bit jittery. Power of suggestion? Maybe. But I’m not ready to knock a prospective remedy just because some study funded by god knows who is telling me to. Especially when I’ve got nothing to lose by testing the theory for myself. After the past few sleeps, I’m up for trying anything that’s side-effect free.
However airy fairy it may seem.
(Why? Because the aliens are sending us telepathic cappuccinos. Duh.)
Which leads me to my next point.
You’ll note (at the beginning) I’ve said this invisible enemy “might” be smiting your night’s rest. And that’s because the concept of EMF’s effect on sleep isn’t widely accepted across the scientific community. Honestly, it may or may not have any impact on shut eye. I haven’t got the means to measure it for myself. But, what I have got is curiosity. And, as a result, I’ve come to question everything even more as I enter my third decade of living. Even research. (Which can be – and is often – skewed, depending on who’s funding it.) Also, there seem to be enough people out there claiming they notice an improvement by diminishing the amount of EMFs surrounding their slumber chambers, that it seems worth listing as a possible last resort if nada else. Because, the way I see it is this: if you unplug all your appliances this week and magically have the best sleep you’ve had in years after doing so…
…then does it really matter what the experimental results were?
In a group of lab rats?
Who aren’t you?