7 reasons why you shouldn’t sleep with your phone

Why is sleep so important?

Firstly we briefly need to answer this question.

I cannot emphasize enough how important sleep it for us. It is the only time our bodies regenerate and naturally heal themselves.

1. When you’re sleep deprived, your body almost immediately develops conditions that resemble the insulin resistance of diabetes. Sleeping, or lack of it, is linked to Diabetes.

2. Studies have found that people who aren’t getting enough sleep drive just as unsafely as someone who’s drunk.

3. Several studies over the past decade point to a link between sleep deprivation and obesity — in both adults and children. Your body takes energy from 2 sources: food and sleep. If there is no sleep, guess what….you will eat more and you will eat more junk food as well.

4. Sleeping more when fighting illness aids recovery, it helps resist infection.

5. Sleep is the ONLY time the body undergoes repair and detoxification.

6. People suffering from stress and depression feel a lot better after they sleep.

Thus sleep has a profound effect on our mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.

Improve the quantity and quality of your sleep by taking your phone out of the bedroom or turn it off before you go to bed. Here are 6 reasons why you should do that starting tonight.

1. Hypervigilance

What are you looking for after a hard day at work? Constant tension and alertness or peace and relaxation? If you chose the latter but sleep with your phone close by you won’t get any of it.

Whether you are aware of it or not, leaving your phone on or nearby can create a sense of hypervigilance. Hypervigilance is an experience often associated with post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD that involves feeling constantly tense or on guard.

Your brain is naturally turned on when the phone is around. Waiting for alerts from it. This prevents the body from achieving the desired state of total relaxation.

Somewhere in the back of your brain, you’re expecting a call, or a text, or facebook message and this makes you less relaxed and more tensed.

So how important is relaxation for you really?

2. Slow down before going to bed

Every time you check your phone, twitter or facebook your brain releases dopamine. Dopamine is created in various parts of the brain and is critical in all sorts of brain functions, including thinking, moving, sleeping, mood, attention, motivation, seeking and reward.

Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out, and search. It increases your general level of arousal and your goal-directed behavior.

Set a switch off time for your phone, ideali 30 min- 1 hour before you go to bed. Give your bain the opportunity to slow down and relax rather than stimulate it.

3. The light disturbs the body’s natural circardian rhythm

Probably the biggest danger to your sleep is the light your device emits. According to Dr Charles Czeisler, a professor of sleep medicine at Harvard University, the light interferes with the body’s natural rhythm, it’s tricking our bodies into believing it’s daytime.

If you wake up in the middle of the night refrain yourself from using your phone. Put it somewhere where you can’t see it or reach it easily. The light will simply disturb you further.
We sleep in cycles of 1½-2 hours, with brief moments of waking in between that normally go unnoticed. That is our natural sleep cycle. A simple flash of light or vibration of your phone at the wrong moment could make you fully conscious.

A few more reasons why you should leave your phone out of the bedroom when you sleep

1. Increase productivity

The two hours after becoming fully awake are likely to be the best. You feel refreshed, relaxed, ready to take on your daily challenges.

Instead of checking facebook sit down, have you breakfast and do your to do list for the day. Then begin with the most difficult tasks on the list. You will finish them in no time.

Of course, if you don’t want to be more productive you don’t have to follow this advice.

2. More/Better sex life

Couples who keep mobile devices in their bedroom have less sex than those who don’t.

And spouses who choose to interact with one another on an emotional level have better, more fulfilling sex.

That makes complete sense, you don’t hurry up so you can watch the next episode of your favourite show, answer the phone, or play Angry Birds.

3. More/Better relationship with your family

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against using technology in your home. I use it every day. And I only have one room, the only place to take my phone is in the bathroom where there is dampness so I chose to turn it off.

Removing technology from bedrooms fosters interaction, you can see this with your own family and friends, I am sure. No one is distracted.

Re-create the relationships with your family

The 7th reason is the fast that your body undergoes the healing process when sleeping.

Wow, how important sleep and switching off is for us, from mental and physical health to better sex life, productivity and more quality time with our families. This can truly be called a balanced lifestyle.

Pictures from http://pixabay.com/

Nutritional Guidelines

In the UK we have adapted the original food pyramid and underpinning guidance to follow what is called
‘The Eatwell Plate’ . This simple guidance model in its current form was introduced in 2007, though earlier
versions existed prior to this.

It provides an alternative illustration of the similar basic guidelines around food
and nutrition found within the US pyramid. Whilst the above illustration itself is very simplistic and provides
less descriptive guidance than the pyramid, the guideline documents behind the national model provide some
more directed advice.

‘The Eatwell Plate’ is also supported by 8 specific healthy eating tips as stated by the Foods Standards Agency:

1. Base your meals on starchy foods
2. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables (5 portions per day)
3. Eat more fish ( 2 portions a week, 1 oily)
4. Cut down on saturated fat and sugar
5. Try to eat less salt, no more than 6g a day
6. Get active and try to be a healthy weight
7. Drink plenty of water (6-8 glasses per day)
8. Don’t skip breakfast

Although I do not fully agree with the first one, the others are very good tips and should be taken into account.

lemon — Photo Credit: Zé.Valdi via Compfight cc

The specifics of the national food model provide the following targets:

Adult males: 2550 calories per day
Adult females: 1950 calories per day

The total amount of calories should be divided across each of the macronutrients to achieve the following ratios:

• minimum of 50% calories from carbohydrates
• maximum of 35% calories from fats
• minimum of 55g of protein per day (9-12% calories)

The different macronutrients contain calories and useable energy. The values vary slightly, but are usually referred to with the following approximate figures:

• carbohydrates 4 calories per gram
• proteins 4 calories per gram
• fats 9 calories per gram
• alcohol (not a nutrient) 7 calories per gram

Kiwi — Photo Credit: Sergiu Bacioiu via Compfight cc

In trying to eat according to the national guidelines some may find incessant calorie counting a challenge
and may prefer instead to guide themselves less intensely by following the suggested portion sizes.

The following table provides some guidelines as to what counts as a typical portion. Manufacturers can
vary what they call a ‘portion’ in their favour to ensure their label information fits better with current
nutrition trends. Be sure to read labels carefully.

Food group	Portion guide
Fruit	Small fruit – 2 satsumas, 2 plums, 2 kiwi, 7 strawberries, 14 cherries. Medium fruit – 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 pear, 1 orange. Large fruit – half grapefruit, one 5cm slice of melon, 1 large slice of pineapple. Dried fruit – about 30g, one large heaped tablespoon of raisins or sultanas, handful of banana chips. Fruit juice – 150ml glass of unsweetened juice
Vegetables	Green veg – 2 broccoli spears, 4 heaped table spoons of kale, spinach, or green beans. Salad veg – 3 sticks of celery, 5cm piece of cucumber, 1 medium tomato, 7 cherry tomatoes. Cooked veg – 3 heaped tablespoons carrots, peas, corn or cauliflower
Bread, rice, pasta and potatoes	1 slice of bread. Handful of rice or pasta, Handful of breakfast cereal. One small to medium potato
Meat, fish, eggs and beans	Lean meat the size of a deck of cards1 large egg. Side of fish the size of a standard checkbook. Handful of beans, nuts or seeds
Milk and dairy	Small cup of milk150ml of yoghurt. Piece of cheese size of small matchbox
Food and drinks high in fat or sugar	Limit these foods to no more than 8% of total intake

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Organic food

The Soil Association states that some of the key reasons for purchasing organic are:
• minimal use of additives
• no pesticides, fungicides or herbicides used in production
• no genetically modified foods used
• no routine antibiotic use on animals
• animal welfare is paramount

abdomen — Photo Credit: LaVladina via Compfight cc

Nutrition and health

There is no doubt that the food we eat and physical activity, or lack of it, plays a significant role in both
preventing and managing health problems.

The following list of commonly occurring, modern day health complications and diseases have all been
shown to have a root cause or risk factor associated with food and diet.

• obesity
• heart disease
• stroke
• some cancers
• metabolic syndrome
• diabetes
• hypertension
• high cholesterol
• asthma
• some types of arthritis
• menstrual irregularities
• infertility
• eczema

If you would like to read more about nutrition, recognised places to seek nutritional information include:

• Food Standards Agency
• Committee on Medical Aspects (COMA) of Food and Nutrition
• British Nutrition Foundation
• Institute of Optimal Nutrition
• scientific nutrition journals e.g. British Journal of Nutrition