Congratulations, you made it to May… but possibly struggling at the end of the day? You’ve been at work for hours, staring at a screen answering emails, taking meetings and calls. On break or lunch, maybe you spent some time scrolling through social media or texting memes to your friends. Tired, you go home and turn on the television while simultaneoulsy doing some more mind-numbing scrolling in an attempt to disengage from reality. Or maybe you go straight for a video game, well into the late hours of the night as your eyes take in the only light in the room from your monitor.

Bright artifical light sources, including ubiquitous blue light, are known to disrupt the 24-hour circadian clock by inhibiting pineal melatonin release at the appropriate time. When the retinal ganglion cells receives photons, signals in the brain are sent throughout the body to indicate the time of day for your organs and cells to properly react.

In astronomy, illuminance is measured as a function of the logarithmic inverse square law (1/distance squared) of radiant energy. Our star is close, so direct sunlight has an illuminance of about 100,000 lux on Earth’s atmosphere. Even closer are the electrical objects such as streetlamps, which produces 5 lux to an observer immediately beneath it. While this may not seem like much, the moonlight of a full moon only produces 1 lux and studies on nighttime light exposure show that an illuminance of as little as 8 lux has an impact on the sleep cycle. Biologically, as even the smallest amount of light is capable of disrupting sleep, blue light in particular has shown to increase this effect. The peak sensitivity of the circadian pacemaker to light is blue-shifted relative to the visible spectrum. Blue light has the shortest wavelength, but has the highest energy.

E = hƒ, and c = ƒλ, thus E = hc / λ in Joules, where h is the Planck constant, ƒ is the frequency and λ is the wavelength of the emitter, and c is speed of light in a vacuum.

Sources of blue lights are emitted by compact fluorescent lighting and LEDs, and prolifically, all our electronic devices. And with the extreme proximity of these screens to the photoreceptors, 1 in 3 adults do not regularly get adequate sleep quantity or proper sleep quality. In addition to the impact of blue light hindering sleep health, we recieve a flood of information and stimulation from sounds and pictures that debilitate and further induce negative consequences to our brains and our thinking. Long-term television use has been associated with decreased cranial gray matter in adults while several studies on the effect of television on children suggest greater impaired executive function.

The first week of May is International Screen-Free Week, meant to bring awareness to the exponential digitization of our lives with the emergence of bigger and “better” screens across several devices. Screen-Free Week started in the 90s and growing concerns of our dependence on media was substantiated well before the smartphone under the “TV-Turnoff Week”. The week was later renamed in the 2000s to encapsulate all screens as entertainment and media use skyrocketed from various mediums of consumption.

An astonishing 86% of the global population own a smartphone, presumptively offering us a greater quantity and opportunity to connect with these users. However, society is moreso heading in a direction that has compromised the quality of most of our personal relationships with ourselves and each other. Screen-Free Week encourages us to connect with friends away from our phones, explore the outdoors, get creative, flip through the pages of a book, find other ways of chasing highs, and break free from our obsessions with screens.

 Courtesy of xkcd comics  

For some of us, myself included, using a screen is necessary for our jobs or daily tasks and responsibilities. Without my laptop connected to the Internet, I wouldn’t have been able to cite and check my sources, write this post, and upload it to reach your retinas and rouse this challenge for your consideration. Without my phone, I wouldn’t be able to text Carli, conduct science, learn Spanish, check the weather, listen to music and podcasts, all of which I carry out every day for my own well-being and happiness. I’ve probably said before that I would throw my phone in the ocean if I could, but realizing the potential for it to bring growth while still being aware of its common pitfalls encourages me to engage in this week with even greater consciousness and appreciation. In what ways have screens brought quality to your life? How can you practice and promote a better relationship with your screens?