Bhubaneswar: Using smartphone before going to bed? Beware. Doctors have warned that cell phone addiction may make you vulnerable to many diseases.
The young and the middle-aged are now said to be becoming avid users of their digital gadgets to access social media, Netflix, TikTok, YouTube videos and other contents of different forms available in the cyberspace just before going to sleep. Several psychiatrists and ophthalmologists this reporter talked to claimed that such habits are interfering with the normal biological clock of the human body and causing strain in the brain cells and eyes making the mobile addiction more vulnerable to lifestyle, eye-related and psychological disorders.
“Such habits are increasing among the mobile users. Blue lights emitting from cell phones cause harm to the brain as it stimulates the brain cells when they actually need rest. It affects the normal function of the body and interferes with the timely release of hormones,” said city-based psychiatrist Dr Amrit Pattojoshi.
He also added that with regular interference with the functioning of the body, mobile addicts become more prone to lifestyle diseases like hypertension, diabetes, high BP and others. “People also fail to feel fresh when they wake up once addicted and also their productivity level dips. These add up to increased anxiety levels,” Pattojoshi said.
Ophthalmologists claim that bedtime use of mobiles for longer durations also triggers early onset of eye ailments which are otherwise confined to the elderly people.
“Avid bedtime users of mobiles are likely to develop an ailment called as ‘Digital Vision Syndrome’. While being engrossed on viewing their favourite content on their mobile, the users often interfere with the normal blink ratio which adds stress to their tear film. Normal blinking ensures even spread of the film on the eye surface which gets disrupted in mobile addicts,” said Dr Anurag Mishra, an ophthalmologist from Cuttack.
Mishra claimed that intensive use of digital devices by the younger generation is resulting in a section of people with eye ailments like dried eyes. “Such diseases were earlier confined to the people of old age but now these have started hitting the youths too. We need to substitute good habits like reading to avert the harmful effects of cell phone addiction.”