Put the phone away to sleep better. And science agrees!

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Apart from the fact that they’re always right, another thing my mother would probably share with yours is the tendency to single out one innocent gadget for every problem in the world—the smartphone.

In fact, my overdramatic mother recently took this blame game a notch higher by attributing my brother’s gastric problem to his obsession with his phone and well, PUBG.

“You’re always concentrating on killing people and raiding houses, which is why you don’t chew your food properly and eat mindlessly. You are going to turn into a fart factory,” she yelled. And before he could even respond, the poor chap’s beloved gadget was confiscated because he let out a fart and interrupted our mom’s nagging.

This drama is exactly what led me to ignore mom’s advice of keeping the phone away at night every time I’d complain of fatigue and exhaustion due to lack of quality sleep.

Little did I know that I was going to be her next victim
Clearly, the lady was in no mood for explanations, only snatching. To keep the peace, I too chose not to argue or fight as I was quite exhausted—thanks to the lack of deep sleep for almost a month.

I still remember that dark, lonely night of no social media updates about anyone’s recent vacation or OOTD, no chatting with colleagues and friends, no email notifications, and no Youtube browsing. On second thoughts, I remember only the initial 30 minutes of this night because post that I snoozed off to glory and slept like a baby—only to wake up like an active adult, ready to take on the world.

In a research conducted at the University of California, San Francisco, it was found that the use smartphones during bedtime can make it difficult to sleep in the first place and even lead to poor-quality sleep when you finally doze off. So mom’s claim wasn’t an exaggeration or drama.

In fact, a study by Harvard researchers goes on to explain that artificial light from your phone screen can mess up your body clock, which works in synchronisation with sunlight and regulates your sleep as well as your metabolic function.

Not to mention, the blue light emitted from your phone screen can suppress the production of melatonin, the hormone responsible for inducing tiredness and regulating your sleep cycle as per a 2011 American National Sleep Foundation poll.

Ladies, need I remind you of the importance of sleep for weight loss, efficiency in performing tasks, and basically, your overall health? I don’t think so. You better put that phone aside and sleep now—after reading my mom’s advice article, of course. Goodnight, lovelies.