According to a YouGov study on sleep, 87% of Britons say they look at their phone or tablet within an hour before going to bed, with 25% claiming they look at their phone immediately before going to sleep. On top of this, 74% of people say they keep their phones in the bedroom at night. 

With so many UK residents claiming to frequently use their phones before turning in at night, what is the true cost of using your phone before bed?  

Experts at Brown’s CBD have highlighted the consequences that late-night screen time can have on your sleep, mood, and overall health. 

The downsides of digital nightcaps 

While the blue light emitted from electronic devices has often been attributed to things such as sleep disruption, research suggests a broader negative impact, with links to such things as: 

Cognitive impairment 

The blue light emitted from your device’s screen is part of the light spectrum most active in your sleep cycle. When stimulated, this part of the brain suppresses the production of the sleep hormone melatonin, making it difficult for people to switch off at night.  

The resulting sleep deprivation from this stimulation can lead to excessive daytime sleepiness and a loss in concentration that can hinder the ability to perform basic daily tasks, more commonly known as ‘brain fog’. 

Poor physical health 

Skimping on sleep due to late-night scrolling can cause a ripple effect that can pose profound long-term health implications. Sleep deprivation has been linked to a myriad of physical health issues, including high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity.  

Poor sleep quality is known to negatively impact hormones that regulate everything from blood sugar to appetite. 

Depression, stress, and anxiety 

While not explicitly focused on late-night scrolling, research conducted over the last few years has suggested a strong link between depression and prolonged periods of screen time, especially in adolescents.  

A 2023 study conducted by The Yale School of Medicine reported that more than 5,000 9–10-year-olds’ time spent on digital technology directly correlated to the likelihood of developing anxiety and depression within a couple of years.  

Unplug and reset 

Whilst there are many consequences strongly associated with late-night screen time, there are also many ways to combat the urge to reach for your phone before bed.  

Here are a few top tips to help you unplug and reset: 

Establish a nighttime routine 

Switching off your devices a few hours before bed allows your brain to de-stress and prepare for sleep. Replacing screen time with calming bedtime rituals such as taking a bath, reading, or engaging in light exercise can help signal to your body that it’s time for bed. 

Utilise digital detox tools 

Ironically, you can actually use your devices to help support your sleep routine, by utilizing a wide range of apps and functions. Features such as ‘sleep mode’ can help reduce blue light and block notifications to help your brain de-stress before sleep.  

There is also a wide range of apps available, such as Headspace or Calm, that you can use to establish better nighttime routines by providing features such as guided meditation sessions to help unwind in the evening. 

Re-evaluate your sleep environment 

Simple changes to your sleep environment can have a significant impact on the quality of sleep you get. Getting rid of electronic stimuli and light-emitting devices can help eliminate potential distractions and remove the temptation to use your devices late at night.  

Optimizing comfort, using black-out blinds, and wearing earplugs to bed are other great ways to improve your sleep routine. 

Natural sleep remedies 

Using CBD products is a proven way to help support your sleep routine. The calming properties of CBD can support better quality sleep; this can also help indirectly by addressing underlying health issues such as pain or stress. 

Essential oils such as lavender and chamomile are also known for their calming properties. Diffusing these oils or applying them topically to the skin (after diluting) can help create a peaceful environment and promote better quality sleep. 

Swapping the blue glow of your laptop or phone for a relaxing bedtime routine is an investment in your overall health. The issues in your sleep that are worsened by late-night screen time can lead to a vicious cycle, ultimately increasing the risk of serious health problems later in life. 

Creating a sleep-conducive environment and using natural sleep remedies such as CBD and essential oils can help break this cycle and positively contribute to your overall health.” 

Laurence Brown, Director, Brown’s CBD

A 36-year-old man from Dangamvura in Mutare whose speeding vehicle knocked down and killed three schoolchildren along Christmas-Pass-Shamu Road last month has been fined US$1 200 and had his driver’s licence revoked by a magistrate.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the accused, John Dumbura, appeared before the Mutare Magistrate’s Court facing charges of culpable homicide. Said the NPA:

The State proved that on the 12th day of March 2024 at around 1500 hours, the accused person was driving a Toyota Fortuner along Christmas pass- Shamu road heading to Mutare town when he was involved in an accident that claimed 3 lives.

The accused person was driving at an excessive speed and lost control of the vehicle, hitting 4 pedestrians named Blessing Chisari, Silvian Maponde, Strive Maponde and Tyron Chikwanda who were walking on the side of the road heading to Chirichangu Farm.

The first three sustained severe head injuries and died at the scene. Chikwanda sustained injuries to the leg and neck and was rushed to Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital for treatment.

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The accused person’s licence was cancelled due to his negligence. The accused person was sentenced to pay a fine of USD1 200 and failure to pay will attract 6 months imprisonment.

A report claims the families of three deceased children demanded US$24,000, 28 head of cattle, four goats and two cocks from the Dumbura family as compensation. The demands were made before the burial of the minors.

Sylvian (13) and Strive Maponde (nine), who were siblings, were buried at their rural home in Marange, while Chisare (nine) was interred at Tsvingwe Cemetery in Penhalonga.

However, Chief Mutasa was reported as saying normally, reparations are not paid before the deceased manifests in an avenging spirit, stating what he or she wants.

He added that the demands for money and cattle made by the bereaved family were pure “madness and unlawful”.

More: Pindula News

It’s not just another ride for a pair of veteran NASA astronauts who arrived to the Space Coast ahead of their flight onboard Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner.

Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, who both joined NASA’s astronaut corps more than two decades ago, will be the commander and pilot for the Crew Flight Test mission of the much-delayed spacecraft.

It’s set to launch with humans on board for the first time atop an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 on May 6 at 10:34 p.m., headed to the International Space Station.

The pair flew into KSC in their T-38 jets, landing at the former space shuttle landing facility Thursday afternoon and speaking with reporters ahead of the vanguard mission.

“This mission going off well? Of course we want it to do that,” said Wilmore from the tarmac. “Do we expect it to go perfectly? This is the first human flight of the spacecraft. I’m sure we’ll find things out. That’s why we do this. This is a test flight. When you do test, you expect to find things. And we expect to find things.”

Wilmore, who was part of NASA’s 2000 astronaut class, was the pilot for STS-129 on board Space Shuttle Atlantis for an 11-day mission in 2009 and then stayed on board the ISS for nearly five months from 2014–2015. Williams was part of NASA’s 1998 astronaut class and had two long-term stays on board the ISS, first flying in 2006 on Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-116 and flying home on Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-117 in 2007 after 192 days in space. She then flew on a Soyuz in 2012 for a four-month stay on board.

This is the third trip to space for both, but the pair are not resting on their laurels with 11 days to go before launch. Wilmore said the coming days could be summed up in three words.

“Review, review, and review—everything we’ve been working on. There’s so much into this, there’s a fair amount of responsibility, obviously, that we hold,” he said. “We are ready. But we want to stay ready. We’ve got a week to continue to make sure that there’s not a single event that we have prepared for that we’re not ready for.”

This marks only the sixth new U.S.-based spacecraft to carry humans following Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the space shuttle and the most recent entrant, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Dragon’s first human spaceflight came nearly four years ago, launching May 30, 2020, with its own pair of veteran NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

Williams said she got a pep talk from Behnken.

“I just got a text from Bob last night, and he was pretty pumped that we were coming down here. He was like, “I’m reliving it in my mind where we were,'” she said. “He gives us his best and is ready for us to go fly.”

SpaceX and Boeing had been running fairly close in development at the end of the last decade as one of two companies NASA awarded contracts for under its Commercial Crew Program. The goal of the program was to replace U.S.-based flights after the end of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011, which forced a reliance on Russia for flights to the ISS on board Soyuz spacecraft.

Starliner, though, ran into trouble on its first uncrewed test flight in December 2019 and was not able to rendezvous with the ISS, forcing a major overhaul of Boeing’s program including hardware, software and management changes. That led to the successful redo of that uncrewed test flight in 2022, but further hardware delays have now made it so next month’s planned launch will come more than four years behind schedule.

Since then, SpaceX has proceeded full bore, having now flown 50 humans to space onboard its fleet of four Crew Dragon spacecraft on 13 missions, and has three more on the schedule to fly before the end of the year.

Wilmore said Starliner took longer, but it’s time.

“We’ve had a few delays because we weren’t ready,” he said. “There are literally 1,000 events that are taking place simultaneously as you step up and get prepared to launch and during the launch sequence, and then the spacecraft itself when we’re on orbit.”

But he’s adamant all the parts are in place.

“There’s so much going on. It is not easy. I think we make it look easy. That’s our goal,” he said. “We want the general public to think it’s easy, but it’s not. It’s way hard. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t ready. We are ready. The spacecraft’s ready. And the teams are ready.”

Boeing’s CFT mission now aims for about an eight-day stay on board the ISS. The major goals for its crew are to test out both docking backup systems on approach and landing operations when it heads back to Earth, which will feature a parachute-assisted touchdown in the western U.S., unlike the watery splashdowns off the Florida coast taken by SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

If successful, it lines Boeing up to begin operational missions to the ISS as early as February 2025. That first mission, dubbed Starliner-1, has three of its four crew members already named.

Boeing is contracted for six crew rotation mission through the end of the ISS’s operation as early as 2030. SpaceX and Boeing would transition to sharing one mission each per year for NASA until the ISS is decommissioned.

For her part, Williams pumped up Starliner’s role in the NASA program now, as well as its role with NASA’s future Artemis program missions on the Orion spacecraft.

“It has a lot of similar things that Orion has,” she said. “So I think if I was a young astronaut, and I was thinking about going to the moon, I think I’d put my hand up and say I want to fly Starliner.”

2024 Orlando Sentinel. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.