Blue light emits from the screens we interact with everyday. Prolonged screen-time can directly and indirectly affect your whole body. Though environmentally friendly, blue light can take a physical tole. 

Counting sheep

Sleep is vital, and often neglected due to scrolling your feed in bed. Sleep helps the body regenerate (1). Once asleep, your brain will trigger the release of hormones that encourage sleep, tissue growth to repair blood vessels, and help restore sore or damaged muscles (2). 

Before the invention of artificial light, our sleep cycle was bound to the natural order. Exposure to blue light specifically after dark throws the body’s sleep cycle out of whack (3). Blue light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that helps you fall asleep (4). 

After a long day, most of us trade sleep for more screen-time. Anything to prolong the encroaching new work day. However, that blue light will have us counting sheep instead of catching z’s. Therefore, the sore muscles you had the night before will follow you in the days ahead. 

How can Physical Therapy Help?

Our clinic is proud to offer multiple disciplines of physical therapy that can aid in areas affected by blue light, and prolonged screen-time. These areas include sleep, muscle regeneration, and whole body rebalance.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is an ancient practice some of our therapists are able to preform. This practice is able to aid pregnancy symptoms, reduce stress and anxiety, and promote sleep by stimulating melatonin production (5). Combatting blue light on a molecular level. 

The small thin needles are painless, and often have a relaxing or tingling sensation. Discomfort is always avoided, and managed with the aid of or expert practitioners. 

If you feel like acupuncture might be the right fit, call today to book an initial assessment. 

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapists often use ultrasound therapy in their treatments to help restore muscles, tendons, joints, and ligaments. Therapeutic ultrasound can be used for heat or cavitation. This therapy technic ultimately promotes healing of injuries and sore muscles; sleep’s most important benefit. 

If blue light impacts the quality of your sleep, your body isn’t able to recover from the day before. Day after day of poor sleep will increase the pain your body will endure. Therapies such as Physiotherapy is a great option for isolated pain.

If you feel Physiotherapy may be the right choice for you, call today to book an appointment!

Massage

We dare you to stay awake on the massage table. With mellow music, Himalayan salt lamps, and an expert RMT treating you it’s really hard not to fall asleep. 

A full body massage will relax every muscle, allowing your body’s natural sleep hormones to work in tandem and rejuvenate the body. Therefore negating the effects of blue light. Allocating an hour to self-care is more important than checking in on social media.

If you want to check out for an hour, call today to book your appointment. 

Osteopathy

It is never comfortable looking at a screen. Either you’re laying on the sofa twisting your head toward the television, looking down at your phone, or hunched over a computer. Your body will compensate and create imbalances in your body to support the screen-time posture. Coupled with blue light, a misalignment of the vertebra can disturb the nervous system to the point of causing insomnia (6). 

Our expert practitioners are able to help restore proper function of the vagus nerve or the X cranial nerve which is responsible for both physical and mental wellbeing. Thereby helping to create a balance between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. A balanced central nervous system permits the body to rest, improves functionality, reduces overall tension and promotes a deeper sleep (6). 

Osteopathy is a great treatment to holistically treat the effects of blue light. If you feel osteopathy might be a good choice for you, call today to book an initial assessment. 

Chiropractic

While blue light suppresses melatonin the effects on your body increases a stress hormone called cortisol. When your chiropractor adjusts your joints, it lowers the secretion of cortisol (7). Some studies show the onset of melatonin typically occurs during low cortisol levels (8). Thereby also making chiropractic treatments combat the effects of blue light on a molecular level. 

If you feel chiropractic treatments are right for you, call today to book your appointment.