The technological age, digital devices and the effects on our health...

Technology plays a vital role in our everyday lives.

We are now in an age where working on digital devices is part of earning our income, learning at school or studying at uni, even reading the news has gone digital. And don’t forget our addictions to social media. I am definitely guilty of over-scrolling in the search for a life changing article or a funny cat video! It’s the era we are in. But what are the impacts?

The laptop and iPad you’re on now or the phone you can’t put down, the Bluetooth signal that powers your headphones, even heaters and radio’s and the microwave in which you reheat your food can disrupt your body’s own energetic frequency. And the Wi-Fi that connects us to our devices emits a high rate of radio frequency that invisibly roams around us doing its job but creating electro magnetic fields that can disrupt our body’s own energy field and affect neurotransmitters in our brains.

EMF’s (electro magnetic frequencies) can block receptor sites for hormone activity creating a cascade of health implications if you are more susceptible. Stress, illness, poor diet and reduced immunity can play their part in susceptibility.

Sleep is one of the greatest impacts of the digital age. The blue light emitted from tablets and smartphones prevents our bodies from producing sufficient levels of melatonin, the sleep hormone, which enables us to fall asleep quickly and easily. This can cause sleep delays which can accumulate into a sleep deficit. We also know that sleeping with our phone in close proximity also compromises the quality of the sleep we have each night.

If we receive alerts and notifications on our device, it interrupts our sleep cycles. Instead of completing the five stages of sleep we cycle through 4-6 times each night, if we’re receiving notifications on our device it means we don’t complete a sleep cycle and the latter two stages of sleep are when memory consolidation occurs. Even if our phones are switched off but in eyesight, just glancing at our phone can trigger us to start thinking about emails and work issues, which can hyper-arouse the brain making it difficult to fall asleep again. The effects of sleep deprivation then become a problem.

Implementing a bedtime routine for your devices (ideally 90 minutes, but even 30-60 minutes before you fall asleep) will have a profound impact on the quality and quantity of sleep each night. Going screen-free will allow your body to produce the melatonin it needs to fall asleep and will help your brain to calm down before you try and enter the sleep state. Also, keep phones and all devices out of bedrooms. Buy an alarm clock if you use your phone as an alarm, preferably a battery operated version to reduce EMF’s.

Buying blue-light blocking glasses to use while watching tv at night and using a blue light filtering app on your phone or computer can reduce the impact of technology. Use noise cancelling headphones rather than ear plug types to reduce the need to listen at high volume.

Another impact my chiropractic colleagues would agree with is the ergonomics of using our devices, heads bent down stretching the neck into an awkward position, shallow breathing, thumbs being strained, eyesight affected…the list goes on. Adopt more ergonomic positioning for looking at hand held devices and computers, our chiropractors will be able to advise on this.

I recommend getting up every 20 minutes and walking away from the device and getting outside if possible, breathing deeply and observing the surroundings. Take a 2 minute break to recharge and escape the radio waves. Children will need some convincing to do this but it’s up to us to encourage them, maybe a healthy snack break and some family fun time outside, I vote to bring back the board game! Not the bored game!

You can also use a flower essence spray or drops to rebalance the energy and lessen the impact of technology, and bringing out your ‘inner hippy’ by burning sage ‘smudge sticks’ has had recent scientific backing at being able to cleanse and recharge our home and work environment.

If you feel you or your child are losing energy to technology give the above tips a try or come in and see me for a dietary overhaul to give your body the best chance at surviving in the high stress, fast paced wi-fi world we live in. 😊