Stop looking at screens 90 minutes before lights out

Is staring at a TV, tablet or smartphone the last thing you do before going to sleep? Then you might be making your night a lot less restful.

Staring at the blue light from a screen, including backlit e-readers, can make it harder to wake up in the morning and less likely that you will feel refreshed and alert, even if you sleep the same amount as usual.

Why? Studies have linked the light from devices to disruptions in the internal body clock and suppression of the sleep-friendly hormone melatonin.

In this study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers compared people who read light-emitting e-books before bed to people who read old-fashioned print. They found that the e-book group took longer to fall asleep, were less sleepy in the evening, had less melatonin and were less alert the next morning. So turn off the screens for a more restful night's sleep.