Overall, technology is not good for the quality of our sleep. The problem is that technology is bright, it’s noisy and it serves to get us excitable and aroused. Too many of us for instance will spend our hours before going to bed playing on games consoles and blasting zombies which of course will get our adrenaline running and make getting to sleep very difficult indeed. And if that doesn’t describe your behaviour, then there’s still a good chance that you’ll spend your hours before bed looking at your phone and then be too alert listening out for text messages when you’re trying to sleep.

In fact, mobile phones can be such a constant source of anxiety that some people have now even reported ‘sleep texting’ during which they wake up and then send texts that they later don’t remember sending. Keeping phones by the bed can cause more problems too, as the light that comes from their ‘on’ LEDs is actually very similar in terms of wavelength in the light from the sun which is enough to disrupt our internal body clock and thus result in disturbed sleep patterns.

As you can see then, technology and sleep don’t traditionally go hand in hand – but there are a number of ways in which the two can go together well sand a number of technologies that are specifically designed to make sleeping easier. Read on to see how some of these work and why technology isn’t all bad.

CPAP

CPAP stands for ‘Continuous Positive Airway Pressure’ and is a device that has been designed to combat a very specific sleep problem that some people have called ‘sleep apnea’. In sleep apnea, patients will find themselves constantly waking up in the night because they cannot breathe, and though they might not even be aware that they are doing so they can then wake up the next day feeling groggy and unwell.

There are various types of apnea, but in ‘obstructive apnea’ the cause is that the windpipe is closing over when the patient falls asleep (possibly because they are overweight). CPAP machines then combat this by funnelling a constant flow of air down their oesophagus while they sleep which is just enough to keep their windpipes open. Of course this isn’t necessarily conducive to their partner‘s sleep however…

E-Cigarettes

E-Cigarettes are smart ‘fake’ cigarettes that give their users a small dose of nicotine while also emulating the feeling of smoking a cigarette. This can make it much easier for someone trying to quit to keep at their goal and to eventually give up entirely. This in turn will mean that they cough less and splutter less and will make them much more likely to get a good night’s rest.

Daylight Lamps

SAD – or ‘seasonal affective disorder’ – is a condition that affects some people in winter causing them to feel depressed and lethargic due to the lack of available sunlight. This can then affect their body clock and their sleep among other things and leave them wanting to crawl back under the covers when the alarm goes.

The solution to this is the ‘Daylight Lamp’ which works by creating light that has a more similar wavelength to real sunlight and then coming on gradually in the morning to mimic the rising sun. This can gradually nudge you out of sleep in a natural way and make you feel as though you’re waking up on a bright sunny day – much better for your mood and for your natural sleep/wake cycles.

Apps

I spent a while berating mobile smart phones just now for being disruptive to sleep, but there are a number of apps that can actually be useful for helping you get a better quality of shut-eye. One is the Sleep Cycle Alarm clock that works by resting on your bed and then using the motion sensor to pick up your movement and to try and guess what stage of sleep you’re in. In this turn, then allows the app to ring just before you set it at a time when you’re in the lightest phases of sleep so that you will wake up fresh and full of energy rather than exhausted as thought you’ve been dragged awake from a coma. There are also a ton of apps on the market for recording your sleep habits to help form positive patterns and identify problems that might be preventing you from sleeping well.

Author Bio:

The author of this article Shruti Vaghe, freelance blogger for EsmokerCanada, leading providers of the best electronic cigarettes. In her spare time, she enjoys about the latest breakthroughs in medical science.