E-books may be disruptive to sleep
By Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times
Planning to read in bed tonight? It may be better to read an actual book instead of an e-book reader. A small study has found that reading light-emitting electronic devices before bedtime is a recipe for poor sleep.
Researchers randomly assigned 12 healthy young adults to one of two activities: reading a light-emitting e-book in a dimly lit room for about four hours before bedtime on five consecutive evenings, or reading a printed book for the same amount of time.
All participants did both tasks.
I have to wonder if the folks in the test not only read, but understood the seemingly contradictory instructions from the manufacturer to turn the light up for bright conditions and down for dark.
Probably not, judging from the number of folks who don’t understand that, heat and energy being the same thing, a calorie or two of increased warmth in the troposphere (not to be confused with the stratosphere where greenhouse gases tend to encourage cooling) means a huge increase in atmospheric energy, nor do folks, at least visiting or, unfortunately, often residing in the mountains, understand that you might be able to brake on ice, or turn on ice, but you can’t do both simultaneously.
This stuff’s really simple, but who pays attention?
Kae, perhaps you should publish life-instructional manuals instead of having fun publishing a newspaper.
I find that backlit tablets DO interrupt sleep, but a side lit Kindle does not.