A 2014 Harvard University study, for example, found that people who read e-books right before going to bed take longer, on average, to fall asleep (a different finding than that of the current study) and tend to awake the next morning feeling less restored than people who read “hardcopy” books. Still, this is not the only study that has suggested that the use of electronic devices before bed can interfere with the quality of sleep. (Apple recently announced a new feature called Night Shift, which automatically reduces the amount of blue light emitted on its devices after the sun sets in the location of the device’s user.)
It’s not clear if other devices, which don’t use blue light, would have similar effects on sleep. And the only electronic reading device used was the iPad. It also observed the participants for only one night under each condition. It involved a small group of people who were similar in age, gender and other demographics. Reading on the iPad appeared to have no effect on REM, or “dream” sleep, however. The amplitude of the slow-wave activity was also reduced on the iPad night compared to the other two nights. The data also showed that once the participants were asleep, their brain waves took, on average, about 30 minutes longer to develop into slow-wave activity patterns, which are indicative of deep, restorative sleep, on the night of the iPad reading. The researchers say the higher level of alertness is likely due to the “blue light” emitted from the iPad (and from other electronic devices, as well as from some types of lightbulbs), which tricks the brain into thinking it’s still daytime, thus delaying sleepiness. Nor did they sleep for shorter periods of time Interestingly - and to the surprise of the researchers - the participants did not take longer to fall asleep, however. Key findingsĪn analysis of the data collected from the participants’ three nights of monitored sleep found that they reported being more alert when they turned off the lights after reading on an iPad than after reading an actual book. Those measurements revealed that the illumination was about 50 percent higher, on average, when the participants were reading from an iPad than when they were reading a hardcopy book using the lighting in their room. A light meter measured the illumination at eye level on each of these nights. On the other night, they read from a physical book, using the ordinary lighting in their room. On one of the next two nights, the participants spent 30 minutes reading with an iPad before turning out the lights. To create a baseline of data, the participants were told on the first night to go to bed as they normally would, but without engaging in any kind of reading, whether electronic or not. The researchers used polysomography equipment to record and measure various biophysical changes - including changes in “brain waves” - that occurred in the participants while they slept.
The study itself involved three nights of monitored sleep in the participants’ own bedrooms. The participants were instructed to follow their normal sleep schedule for the week leading up to the study. All were healthy, familiar with using a tablet, and had no history of sleep or psychological problems. The study’s designįor the current study, researchers at Norway’s University of Bergen recruited 16 people (14 women) between the ages of 22 and 33. In that same poll, more than 60 percent of the respondents reported that they had a sleep problem almost every night, including feeling unrefreshed when they woke up in the morning.
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