The National Sleep Foundation has released their annual study this week on American’s sleeping habits, and once again concluded that technology is ruining our sleep.
Says vice chairman Russell Rosenberg:
Unfortunately, cell phones and computers, which make our lives more productive and enjoyable, may be abused to the point that they contribute to getting less sleep at night leaving millions of Americans functioning poorly the next day.
95 percent of those in the study said they used some electronic device within one hour of sleep, and 65 percent admitted they do not get enough sleep during the week.
Exposure to artificial light within one hour of bed can “increase alertness and suppress the release of melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone,” says Charles Czeisler, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Continues Czeisler (via Reuters):
Technology has invaded the bedroom. Invasion of such alerting technologies into the bedroom may contribute to the high proportion of respondents who reported they routinely get less sleep than they need.
“Baby Boomers,” adults aged 45-64, had the biggest percentage of those watching TV before bed while 61 percent of all admitted to using their computers at least a few nights each week.
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3D technology was the biggest new trend of the 2010 CES event, and the creation of new glasses and digital 3D has certainly made the experience a more enjoyable one. Despite the advances, prominent eye experts has said that 3D tech may still lead to headaches for many users, and they should have their eyes checked first before investing in 3D HDTVs or other tech.
“There are a lot of people walking around with very minor eye problems, for example a minor muscle imbalance, which under normal circumstances, the brain deals with naturally,” says Dr Michael Rosenberg, an ophthalmology professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. 3D “translates into greater mental effort, making it easier to get a headache,” Rosenberg added.
Normally, each eye will see things at a different angle.
“When that gets processed in the brain, that creates the perception of depth,” adds Dr. Deborah Friedman, a professor of ophthalmology and neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. “The illusions that you see in three dimensions in the movies is not exactly calibrated the same way that your eyes and your brain are. If your eyes are a little off to begin with, then it’s really throwing a whole degree of effort that your brain now needs to exert. This disparity for some people will give them a headache.”
Dr. John Hagan, a fellow with the American Academy of Ophthalmology adds that anyone with a lack of depth perception or eye muscle issues may not be able to see 3D images at all, or will have trouble processing the images.
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Google Inc. is becoming more confident that its YouTube video-sharing service acquired for $1.65 billion in 2006 will become profitable soon. Since acquiring the site, which is used to share and view videos for free, Google has lost money due to high maintenance costs as the number of users continues to rise. Analysts have been cautious about YouTube exactly because of these high costs.
“YouTube is now on a trajectory that we’re very pleased with,” Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said during an earnings call on Thursday. He revealed that Google is working with advertising agencies to help them to create ads suited for YouTube easily. At the Sun Valley technology and media conference last month, Schmidt also said that new advertising formats (such as pre-play ads) will draw in more revenue.
Additionally, in the past year, the number of video viewing monetized videos (videos supported by advertising) has increased three-fold. “We’re now monetizing billions of views of partner videos every month,” Google’s head of product management and marketing, Jonathan Rosenberg said.
