iPad Insomnia

Health advice from Time, Why You Shouldn’t Read a Tablet Before Bed. In a Penn State study there was a marked difference between each participant’s sleep patterns and alertness depending on whether [bold added]

they read from a digital reader or from a book. When they read from an iPad, their evening levels of melatonin failed to drop as much as they should, while they remained at expected levels when they read from a book. That led to a delay in body’s biological signal to go so sleep of about an hour and a half, making the participants more alert and therefore not ready for bed.

In addition the participants who read from tablets had shorter REM sleep, though they may have slept the same number of hours that book-readers did.

What’s more, the effect of those differences in sleep patterns spilled over into the next morning. When they read from digital readers, the participants reported feeling sleepier and were less alert (as measured on standardized testing of alertness) than when they used books.

My problem is worse: I'll often press quit on the comparatively boring book I'm reading on iBooks or Kindle and stream a Netflix movie, or play one of the 20 games I've downloaded. That'll keep the Sandman away.

Thrilling, but not enervating