DO YOU WANT TO SLEEP MORE? REMOVE THE ELECTRONIC DEVICES FROM YOUR ROOM

To sleep more and better, turn off the cell phone, TV, computer, video games and do not check emails or messages

NEW YORK (CNN)

The dependence on television, mobile phones and laptops can be very costly to humans, especially at bedtime.

The tendency to watch television every night before, play video games or check emails and text messages before turning off the lights could be interfering with Americans' sleep habits.

A recent survey, conducted by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF for its acronym in English), confirms the point made by other scholars on the subject: technology is stealing our sleep.

"Unfortunately, cell phones and computers, which make our lives more productive and enjoyable, can be abused to the point of helping people sleepless at night, leaving millions of Americans working mediocre at night. next day, "said Russell Rosenberg, vice president of the

Almost 95 percent of NSF respondents said they used some type of electronic device one hour before going to sleep, and about two-thirds admitted they had not slept enough during the week.

Charles Czeisler, of the Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women Hospital in Boston, said that exposure to artificial light before going to sleep can increase alertness and suppress the release of melatonin, the hormone that induces sleep.

"Technology has invaded the bedroom," Czeisler explained in an interview. "The invasion of such technologies that put us alert in the bedroom can contribute to the high proportion of respondents who said they routinely slept less than they needed," he added.

The population of the baby boomers, who are between 46 and 64 years old, were the most watched television before going to sleep, while more than a third of those who were between 13 and 18 years and 28 percent of adults Young people - between 19 and 29 years old - played with video games before going to bed.

Sixty-one percent also said they used the computer several nights each week.

And the tendency to be connected means that even if someone falls asleep, they can wake up on their cell phones, text messages or emails at night.

"One in 10 children said they wake up by texting after they went to bed, people do not turn off their Blackberries," Czeisler said, adding that all of this is taking hours of sleep.

Generation Z, who are between the ages of 13 and 18, were the most sleep-deprived group, with 22 percent describing themselves as "sleepy", compared to only 9 percent of baby boomers.

Experts recommend that teens sleep nine hours and 15 minutes per night, but adolescents tend to do it 7 hours and 26 minutes on average during the week.

"What worries me the most is how little young people between 13 and 18 years old sleep," Czeisler said. "Children today sleep an hour and a half or two hours less than a century ago, which means they lose approximately 50 hours of sleep per month," he added.

Lack of sleep negatively affects work, humor, family, driving habits, sexual relations and health, according to the NSF.