Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article explains the bio-mechanical aspects of what's called "circadian rhythm." Basically your body's sense of how late in the day it is, and whether you should be awake or asleep. When this sense is off, you can have serious sleep issues, migraines or other kinds of nasty headaches, and more effects directly linked to its dysfunction.
One major factor in current times that can cause circadian rhythm dysfunction is screen time. Most computer, TV, and smart device screens project a good amount of blue-white light. (So do some headlights, Christmas lights, and those obnoxious blue-white LED light strips people use around store fronts to draw the attention...) At present time, most people spend at least some time near bedtime looking at these sources of blue light. Autistic people often suffer sleep disorders, including insomnia, and we also tend to be more technologically-inclined, spending time in online communities formed around our interests.
So what's to be done? Frustratingly (in my opinion), your very best option is to set aside all such sources of light at least an hour before bedtime. Preferably two hours before bedtime. I say "frustratingly" because my work and most of my leisure activities involve blue light sources. There's my support tablet with scientific articles, webcomics, and e-books. There's also my computer screen to write these entries, play video games with my spouse, and rarely, to check social media. Even when I'm out of the house, there's the headlights and those dratted LED light strips, which I can only hope will be made illegal soon.
There are alternatives, of course... but they're not as effective as simply keeping away from blue light around bedtime. I use a program called f.lux to modulate the light my computer screens shed. Essentially, around bedtime, it changes the kind of light your screens give off, making it more orange and red rather than blue. It can take a bit to adjust to, but I have started sleeping better since installing it.
The phone/smart device is a bit harder. F.lux has a smartphone app, but at least for my device, it requires you to have rooted the device, which means a lot of tinkering and invalidating warranties. I suppose I shouldn't worry about it, this particular device has a broken screen now, and it's far too expensive (hundreds of dollars) to bother repairing it.
For the time being amd instead of that, I use a less effective app called Twilight. Rather than removing the blue light entirely from the screen, it puts the screen output through a red layer. So it decreases how much blue light you're exposed to. Better than nothing, especially since I like my e-books.
(If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that didn't make the cut for Reading the Research articles!)
One major factor in current times that can cause circadian rhythm dysfunction is screen time. Most computer, TV, and smart device screens project a good amount of blue-white light. (So do some headlights, Christmas lights, and those obnoxious blue-white LED light strips people use around store fronts to draw the attention...) At present time, most people spend at least some time near bedtime looking at these sources of blue light. Autistic people often suffer sleep disorders, including insomnia, and we also tend to be more technologically-inclined, spending time in online communities formed around our interests.
So what's to be done? Frustratingly (in my opinion), your very best option is to set aside all such sources of light at least an hour before bedtime. Preferably two hours before bedtime. I say "frustratingly" because my work and most of my leisure activities involve blue light sources. There's my support tablet with scientific articles, webcomics, and e-books. There's also my computer screen to write these entries, play video games with my spouse, and rarely, to check social media. Even when I'm out of the house, there's the headlights and those dratted LED light strips, which I can only hope will be made illegal soon.
There are alternatives, of course... but they're not as effective as simply keeping away from blue light around bedtime. I use a program called f.lux to modulate the light my computer screens shed. Essentially, around bedtime, it changes the kind of light your screens give off, making it more orange and red rather than blue. It can take a bit to adjust to, but I have started sleeping better since installing it.
The phone/smart device is a bit harder. F.lux has a smartphone app, but at least for my device, it requires you to have rooted the device, which means a lot of tinkering and invalidating warranties. I suppose I shouldn't worry about it, this particular device has a broken screen now, and it's far too expensive (hundreds of dollars) to bother repairing it.
For the time being amd instead of that, I use a less effective app called Twilight. Rather than removing the blue light entirely from the screen, it puts the screen output through a red layer. So it decreases how much blue light you're exposed to. Better than nothing, especially since I like my e-books.
(If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that didn't make the cut for Reading the Research articles!)
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