Research has shown that the light emitted from mobile devices can interfere with sleep.
This is a concern for individuals who are watching ASMR videos to relax their minds and fall asleep more easily.
Yet there are still plenty of online reports that watching an ASMR video does help many people to fall asleep more easily than not watching an ASMR video.
A recent research study published in PLOS Biology may help to explain this conundrum.
The researchers exposed mice to blue light (the type of light more so emitted from computer screens) or to green light at their “bedtimes”.
Compared to the mice exposed to the green light, it took the mice exposed to blue light much longer to fall asleep and they had higher levels of the stress hormone corticosterone in their blood.
If the researchers gave the mice a drug that blocked the effect of the stress hormone then the mice went to sleep much more quickly in the presence of blue light.
How could this relate to ASMR videos and sleep?
If the relaxing stimulation by ASMR videos naturally decreases stress hormones, then ASMR videos could be acting similar to the drug in the experiment above which blocked the rise in stress hormones and allowed the mice to fall asleep more quickly.
So basically, ASMR videos may be decreasing stress hormones more than blue light is increasing stress hormones. The net effect would be lowered stress hormones and increased ability to fall asleep.
This makes for a compelling research project involving ASMR videos, control videos, measurement of sleep parameters, and measurement of stress hormones.
Even with this potential explanation, it may still be a good idea to listen to ASMR videos with the screen off if the audio-only version is still relaxing. That could result in even lower stress hormones and faster sleep induction.
Read about the research study with mice and blue light:
Read more about the effect of computer screens on sleep:
- Can the light from an ASMR video interfere with sleep?
- Update: Can the light from an ASMR video interfere with sleep?
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