For most of world history, people woke up with the coming of the sun and fell asleep with the onset of darkness. Then we invented electricity and got the opportunity to return the day with just the touch of a button on a fixture, also just changing it for the night. Of course, now our life has become more comfortable, however, according to a study conducted at Johns Hopkins University in the USA, such a scenario of it can bring us many more serious problems.
One of them is depression, as it turned out, capable of developing due not only to lack of sleep, but also to the bright artificial light that we are exposed to in the dark, being in front of the screens of a computer, laptop, mobile phone and other electronic devices.
As the head of a scientific experiment devoted to the study of this issue, Professor Samer Hattar, said that any bright light of artificial origin emitted by electronic devices can cause significant harm to humans, especially at night. This happens by increasing the level of a special hormone in our bodies that is responsible for stress. In turn, this effect increases the risk of a depressive state in us, reducing some cognitive functions.
As for the study itself, then as a subject of observation, mice were taken into it. “The fact is that the structure of the eyes and, in general, the functioning of the body of this animal largely coincides with the work of the human body,” explains Professor Hattar. So, during the experiment, scientists, in the laboratory, regularly exposed the rodents to the bright light of various electrical appliances, periodically turning them off, and then bringing them back to working condition.
In mice constantly residing in such conditions, soon there were more and more signs of depression expressed in their behavior. So, mice gradually began to show a lesser craving for food, new objects that fit into their cells began to lose their activity, as a result of which their mobility was reduced to a minimum, and the passage of those tests that they managed in a matter of seconds now began to take they are much longer than before.
According to Samer Hatter, each of us should, whenever possible, avoid exposure to bright light at least late at night. In addition, besides depression, its influence is also fraught with the fact that a person can impair his learning abilities and memory, as evidenced by previous studies conducted in this area.
