Reading from a tablet affects the brain, tricking it into believing that it is daytime.
(Mirror Daily, Unites States) – Books are better than tablets when it comes to reading before going to sleep. Researchers found that people who read from a book experience more sleepiness than individuals who use a tablet for the same activity.
This is not the first time somebody claims that books are better than tablets. But it is one of the first experiments that scientifically proves the affirmation.
Janne Gronli, the lead author, and researcher at the Bergen University in Norway declared that the study found that when it comes to a good night’s sleep, books are better than tablets.
In order to reach these conclusions, she gathered a sample of sixteen volunteers. All of them were nonsmokers, familiar with both physical books and tablets, and had no psychiatric, medical or sleep disorders. The ages of the participants varied from 22 to 33.
The volunteers were asked to adopt a regular sleeping pattern before the experiment so that the results would be relevant. After that, the researchers measured the participants in three separate nights.
In the first one, they measured their sleep activity so that they could have a point of reference. In the second, the volunteers were asked to read for half an hour from an iPad, and in the third they repeated the activity, only this time using a book.
According to the result, the night in which the participants read from an actual book, they felt sleepier, and their brain was ready to engage in the restful activity. But when they delighted themselves with the electronic version, their brains were more alert, and it took them longer to reach the REM stage after the sleep onset.
Books are better than tablets because tablets use blue light which tricks the brain into thinking that it is daylight outside, and it should become alert and ready for action. But the study was realized on a small sample, and further research is needed in order for the scientists to declare that books are better than tablets when it comes to before-sleep activities.
Furthermore, there are a couple of illuminating devices that use blue light as well. So, in a future study, researchers have more variables to take into consideration.
Other members of the scientific community are defending Apple products saying that the company already released new night time features that diminish the amount of blue light used by the device, thus allowing the user to go to sleep faster.
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