When you scroll through your phone or watch TV right before bed, you're not just relaxing—you're fighting your body's natural sleep signal. Screen time before bed, the use of digital devices with screens in the hours leading up to sleep. Also known as evening digital exposure, it disrupts your circadian rhythm by blocking the production of melatonin, the hormone your brain releases to tell your body it's time to sleep. This isn't just about feeling tired the next day—it's about deep, restorative sleep slipping away, night after night.
Blue light from screens tricks your brain into thinking it's still daytime. Studies show that just two hours of screen exposure before bed can delay melatonin release by over an hour. That means if you're trying to fall asleep at 11 p.m., your body might not even start winding down until midnight. And it’s not just phones. Tablets, laptops, smart TVs, and even LED bedside lamps do the same thing. People who use devices in bed are more likely to take longer to fall asleep, wake up more often, and feel groggy in the morning. It’s not laziness or stress—it’s biology. Your brain is wired to respond to light, and artificial light at night throws off its clock.
Some people try to fix this with blue light filters or "night mode" settings. But here’s the truth: those settings help a little, but they don’t fix the problem. The real fix is distance and timing. Keeping your phone out of the bedroom cuts exposure by 90%. If you must use a device, do it at least 90 minutes before bed and dim the screen as much as possible. Reading a physical book, listening to a podcast with headphones, or doing light stretching are better ways to wind down. And if you’re already taking melatonin supplements, a common sleep aid often used to reset sleep cycles, remember that screen light can still cancel out its effect. You can’t out-supplement a bad habit.
What you’ll find below are real, practical posts that dig into exactly how screens mess with your sleep, what medications and supplements make it worse, and how to build a bedtime routine that actually works. From the hidden dangers of mixing melatonin with other sleep aids to how sleep quality connects to chronic health issues, these articles give you the facts—not fluff. No guesswork. No hype. Just what you need to stop losing sleep to your phone.
