"" Writer's Wanderings: Catching Zzzzs On The Road

Monday, January 30, 2017

Catching Zzzzs On The Road

One of the articles I saved to look at a while ago had to do with helping you sleep when you travel. Since I have an awful time trying to sleep on an airplane, I thought I would give it a look.

First up was the most common, the sleep mask. I can't stand anything attached to my head like that and I'd really like to be able to open my eyes without thinking I've gone blind which I might should I actually doze off.

Other gadgets you could wear included a headband with speakers in it, said to be flat enough to be more comfortable than headphones or earbuds. Again, it would require something wound around my head but did sound more plausible than headphones to keep out the noise of the plane.

There were all sorts of apps to monitor your sleep, wake you gently, create white noise but I have my own white noise since I have tinnitus.

Probably the most intriguing, besides the "human charger" that was said to shoot bursts of white light into your ears to lull you to sleep, was the app that could be applied to your electronic gadgets to cut down on the blue screen glare that is said to keep you awake long after you've shut the gadget off and tried to sleep. Hmmm, I said. Let's have a look.

I found a Harvard article that confirmed that blue light does indeed interfere with sleep. Blue light suppresses the production of melatonin which is what your body produces to make you sleepy. Blue light is dominant in computer and phone screens and the article suggests turning those screens off two to three hours before bedtime.

Apparently blue light is also more prevalent in those new energy saving LED bulbs as well and they were hoping that manufacturers would eventually start adding a coating to the bulbs to reduce the amount of blue light.

I'm guilty of working on the computer before bedtime or, yes, I'm confessing, playing games on my phone. Guess I need to rethink my evening routine especially when we're traveling and jet lagged.

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