You’re not sleeping at night because you’re looking at your phone too much

Put it away

| UPDATED

The light from phone or laptop screens messes with your hormones and will harm your sleep, researchers say. 

The harmful blue light emitted from screens like phones, tablets and laptops are stopping you from getting your eight hours.

Research suggests people who use their gadgets late at night are distinctly more likely to suffer from unusual sleep patterns.

Students constantly anchored to their phone are particularly at risk.

So while late at night might be the primetime for raking in Instagram likes, you’re all paying the price.

When it’s night time, the pineal gland in your brain ramps up levels of the hormone melatonin in order to enable a peaceful slumber. But modern life is taking its toll. Late night artificial light confuses the gland, turning night into day and interfering with normal sleep patterns.

The science behind it shows at night time, the pineal gland in your brain ramps up the levels of hormone melatonin to give you a peaceful slumber.

It’s particularly an issue for teenagers – one study in February showed the longer we looked at our screens, the longer we took to get to sleep and the less sleep we got.

It gets worse. Not only are screen-based gadgets being more frequently used, but screens are getting smaller and so held more closely to the eyes.

Now phone companies, apps and computer coders are trying to use more coloured filters on their screens as a roundabout way of beating the blues.

One piece of research, published earlier this month by Mariana Figueiro, shows 20 teenagers’ melatonin levels were 23 per cent lower after looking at a screen before bed, than on a night looking at a screen but wearing blue light blocking goggles.

The only way to get a restful night’s sleep is by removing screens completely from your night time routine.

Oxford Brookes fresher Chloe Green said: “I always look at my phone before I go to bed but I thought it was sending me to sleep, not keeping me up.”