Last week, we showed how bad posture with cellphones wreck our brain chemistry. This week, I’m going to explore how staying up late to watch movies on my phone is making me fat and how to use evolution to undo these effects.
Oh, how nice it is to blame our lizard brain for my lack of impulse control and my monkey past for my behavioral problems! Point of fact, however, those hundreds of thousands of years of evolution do contribute for better and for worse. Our direct choices undermine our health, but fortunately, researchers are discovering specifics in the evolution of our body chemistry related to posture, sleep and other factors we can control. If only our modern-day lifestyle didn’t work against us.
As a direct stock owner of Netflix and Disney I want to support my stocks by watching TV all night… I am not an addict; I just want to support my stock. In any case, it turns out that watching TV on my phone until late in the evening is trouble!
Harvard Medical School published a study that blue wavelengths of light increase attention, reaction time and mood – and also make you feel awake. It turns out that after thousands of years of blue light only being associated with the daytime conditioned our body chemistry to use that light be alert during the day and sleepy at night. Now our efficient LED lights emit more blue-wavelength light and we stare at our LED TVs and our LED phones as we watch videos right up to bedtime.
The Natural Medicine Journal notes the role of cortisol in sleep patterns and shows how cortisol is associated with waking up. As we noted last week, cortisol is associated with stress and forces us to be more alert and ready to flee from predators. So, if I’m stressed and driving my car with bad posture, I’m cranking up my cortisol. Then when I get home, hunch over and watch TV on my phone, it makes me less sleepy. Combine that with the fact that the blue lights at night depress my melatonin and how can I sleep! A double-whammy!
What happens when I am not sleepy? Naturally, I stay up and watch more TV which takes away hours of sleep. Then I get fat. Seriously!
In a Nurses’ Health Study, 60,000 women provided 16 years of data. Researchers found that those who slept 5 hours or less per night had a 15% higher risk of becoming obese and had a 30% higher chance of gaining 30 pounds than those who slept 7 hours.
In a Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study it was discovered that lack of sleep affected appetite regulation hormones that tended to increase the appetite and be associated with increased body mass index. From my own experiences, if I didn’t have time to sleep, I don’t usually make the time to work out and I find myself making worse food choices. If I’m not a unique freak, then perhaps this explains why lack of sleep tends to make people gain weight.
Another factor in weight gain may be stress. In a recent study publicized by the Cleveland Clinic, a link was found between higher cortisol levels and higher BMI. The Cleveland Clinic notes that cortisol was a useful mechanism to “run away from wild animals” but that long-term stress cause many problems.
So to recap what we have so far, when I hunch over to look at my phone, I convince my body I am prey and my cortisol kicks in to I can run away. When I watch blue light, I get woken up so I can hunt. When I don’t hunt or run away, I can’t get rid of cortisol and I can’t sleep – both of which make me fat. Then if I get stressed by driving or intense work pressure it also drives up cortisol – which can also make me fat.
So what does evolution tell us we need to do to counter these effects?
First, exercise. Walking naturally can correct posture and help reduce cortisol levels. Lifehacker notes that posture is improved if one gets up from a desk at least two times per hour. Exercise, in general, releases endorphins that not only improve brain function – but they trigger cortisol release. However, don’t overdo it! Training Peaks illustrates how intense physical training can also affect cortisol in the body and implies that training in the morning can help one to be more relaxed in the evening. However, it also shows that exercise in the later hours can prevent cortisol levels from dropping in time for the evening. Should you need additional means to relax, the American Institute of Stress recommends calming exercises to also help release stress
Second, block blue light in the evenings. Using red lights or blue-blocking glasses can counter the melatonin-suppressing effects. Exposure to bright light during the day can also help to make the impact of the blue light in the evening less impactful. It is also a good idea to stop watching screens 30-60 minutes before going to sleep to help the body start to relax. Lastly, eating well can lower stress. The Mayo clinic recommends nutrient-dense whole foods, fruits, vegetables, and reducing both caffeine and sugar in the evening. Not only with they help reduce stress, they will help the body relax before bedtime.
So, while our modern-day lifestyle conspires to make us stressed and fat, evolution provides us with relatively simple tools to recover: exercise, eat well and sleep. Why do I hear my mother whispering in the back of my head again?