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Posted on Mar 24, 2008, 8 p.m.
By Jeanelle Topping
The use of modern technology and hi-tech gadgets before going to bed negatively affects the quality of sleep, according to the Sleep Council.
The use of modern technology and hi-tech gadgets before going to bed negatively affects the quality of sleep, according to the Sleep Council.
Jessica Alexander from the sleep awareness body explained that the advent of wireless internet, email, BlackBerrys and mobile phones has increased people's availability to work and in turn stands in the way of restful sleep.
"It is very much a 24-hour society… Our survey is just one in a long line of signs, pointing to the fact that we are losing touch with balanced lives and that sleep is getting squeezed from both ends," she said.
A recent study by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Wayne State University in the US found that mobile phone usage for a substantial period of three hours or more immediately prior to bedtime disrupts sleep patterns.
Studying small groups of men and women between the ages of 18 and 45, the research revealed that when exposed to GSM wireless signals before going to bed, the participants took longer to drift off into deep sleep and then spent less time in that state than unexposed sleepers did. They also experienced headaches and confusion.
