Analyzing the Effect of Technology on Sleep Patterns and Habits

This essay examines the impact of technology on sleep patterns, focusing on the effects of electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops, and televisions. It highlights how late-night use of these devices leads to sleep deprivation, reduced concentration, and altered sleep schedules. The essay also discusses the role of blue light emitted from screens in suppressing melatonin production, further disrupting sleep. Empirical studies are cited to support the thesis that technology negatively affects sleep, with examples including teenagers sending text messages late at night and individuals creating a work environment in their beds due to device usage. The conclusion reinforces the argument that excessive technology use alters sleep patterns, emphasizing the need to create a conducive sleep environment free from electronic devices to improve rest and productivity. Desklib provides students access to similar solved assignments and past papers.

Running head: TECHNOLOGY AND SLEEP 1
Technology and Sleep
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TECHNOLOGY AND SLEEP 2
Technology and Sleep
Introduction
The last couple of decades have overseen a tremendous growth in technological
innovation which has led to the production of massive electronic gadgets such as mobile phones,
televisions, radio and other electronic innovations (Hysing et al., 2015). The production of the
technological products has been embraced by many people across the world which in the process
has changed people’s perception and also led to the excessive use of the productions.
Technology, hence, has brought about psychological changes such as altering how people behave
and sleep patterns among people as a result of technology use (Harris et al., 2015). The thesis of
this paper is to analyze how technology has affected sleep patterns among people.
Empirical studies on the use of technology and sleep highlight the idea that most users
often end up using their devices till late in the night which leads them to go to bed as after
midnight or even as late as four in the morning (Lemola et al., 2015). The effect of the late night
use results to a person waking up late the following day. People who sleep past midnight also get
less sleep time which reduces their concentration during the day and may also lead to them
sleeping during daytime to compensate for the lack of sleep (Chaput,2016). The increase in
technology usage has come along with increased cases of people during the day which is by itself
evidence of technology having an effect on sleep patterns (Harris et al., 2015).
Technological use may also lead to lack of sleep among users because of the prolonged
habit of staying up late at night. A person may end up finding it difficult to sleep at night. Such a
person is likely to spend long hours of the night doing other activities related to technology use
only for them to end up sleeping for long hours during the day as a means of compensating for

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the lack of sleep at night. Students who sleep during the class time often admit to having stayed
up late at night because of different reasons such as the use of technological gadgets (Demirci et
al., 2015).
Most parents have expressed concern that a majority of their children sleep with at least
one electronic product in bed (Lemola, & Grob, 2015). Other studies have also confirmed that a
majority of people use their technological gadgets which are mostly phones and laptops for at
least an hour before sleep (Hale & Guan, 2015). The use in some cases extends late into the night
based on how interesting the activity is, therefore, altering the sleep pattern. The resulting cause
of this is that most people often sleep past ten at night up to midnight because one has to allocate
sufficient time for using technological gadgets prior to falling asleep (Gamble et al., 2014).
There are also cases of people who find themselves dozing off in the middle of using the gadgets
leading to the suggestion that their sleep patterns have been affected. The person may lack the
ability to fall asleep by themselves (Choe et al., 2015).
The fact that most technological gadgets such as the mobile phones emit light which
allows users to use the gadgets in the dark has also been deemed to cause lots of problems.
According to Gradisar, (2013). The light that is produced by the hand held devices such as
smartphones suppresses the production of a hormone known as melatonin which is a sleep
inducing hormone ( Clark & Landolt,2017). This is what causes the individual to lack sleep as
the light is both mentally and physically stimulating. Based on this research and another carried
out by Hale, (2015). Which stated that teenagers in the United States of America send an
average of 60 text messages in a day, of which 70% of the texts are sent during the night right
before they sleep. This goes to show the adverse effects of one of the most common

TECHNOLOGY AND SLEEP 4
technological devices on the behavioral patterns of individuals in their day to day activities
(Lemola,& Grob,2015).
In addition to that, Researches done by (Hale, 2015). have shown that the tendency of
individuals using their technological devices especially in bed such as the laptops and
smartphones, mentally creates their working environment in bed. This is because this individuals
have auto tuned their brains that they can be able to perform their day to day activities in bed.
This makes the individuals alter their sleeping patens as they are compelled to do their work in
their beds instead of making their minds relax and their bodies rejuvenated. According to Clark,
& Landolt (2017), when we use technological gadgets in bed, we make the bed to be a place of
either work, study or socializing rather than a place for rest and relaxation of the mind and body.
All these have been brought about by the stimulating effect that these technological
gadgets have. (Lemola, & Grob, 2015). Recently stated that technological devices are both
mentally and physically stimulating. He later concluded that the modern human has currently
biologically shifted their mindset to sleeping late due to the technological gadgets while at the
same time they want to wake up very early in the morning. This meant that the human being
sleeps for less than the averagely recommended 6-8 hours in a day. Research has shown that
individuals who sleep for less than 6 hours a day are 50% less productive than the ones that have
had at least 6 hours of sleep (Wells, & Vaughn,2013). The research that further gave light to the
results that 60% of grown-ups, experience fatigue that is brought about by the lack of enough
sleep every night. This has been evidenced revelation by some of the top managers that most of
their employees are usually less productive in the early morning hours. This compels them to
shift their focus from their normal day to day duties (Vernon, & Modecki,2015).

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It is based on such compelling results that the national sleep foundation indicated that it is
best practice to remove all technological or work materials such as the smart phone, television
and the laptops from the sleeping environment. A good example is when a teenager plays games
on a laptop in his bedroom, he begins to view his room as an entertainment area. This therefore
will always lead to anxiety whenever he is in the room and therefore it will be hard for the
tenager to get enough rest while in his room. They go ahead and state that for one to increase
productivity, one has to create a conducive environment around their sleeping area. This means
clearing away most of the technological systems. This is because these devices are associated
with anxiety and the removal of the gadgets creates a conducive environment for rest and
increase in productivity.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the discussion in the paper indeed justifies the thesis that the use of
technology has altered the sleep patterns among people. The paper has provided a detailed
analysis as to the different effects that have risen up leading to altering the sleep patterns as a
result of technology use. The excessive use of technology such as laptops, mobile phones and
televisions at night for different reasons such as communication and entertainment is one of the
major reasons that has led to the changes discussed in the paper on sleep patterns.

TECHNOLOGY AND SLEEP 6
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