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  • You darn kids with your e-pads and your i-books! In my day words were on dead trees

  • and they didn’t keep us up all night!” Calm down angry grandpa I just made up, the

  • right e-reader will still let you get to bed by 6 pm.

  • Hello bibliophiles, Julian here for DNews. Youve probably seen some stories recently

  • warning you that your e-reader is plotting to give you insomnia and maybe cancer.

  • These articles are stemming from a recent study published December 22nd in the Proceedings

  • of the National Academy of Sciences. In the study 12 subjects each read books either in

  • paper form or an ipad for 4 hours a night, 5 nights in a row. The next week they would

  • switch to the other format and spend another 5 nights reading for 4 hours before bed. Talk

  • about a great excuse to re-read the Harry Potter series.

  • The study found that those who read on the newfangled ipads took longer to fall asleep,

  • spent less time in REM, and woke up feeling more tired. The hypothesis is the short-wavelength

  • or blue light from the ipad inhibited the release of melatonin in the subjects, and

  • this is all based on solid science.

  • Melatonin is a hormone synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan and it makes you feel

  • sleepy. If youre American youre probably familiar with the myth that thanksgiving turkey

  • makes you sleepy because of the tryptophan. Let’s put that rumor to bed right now, because

  • turkey actually has slightly less tryptophan than chicken. Anyway, an enzyme with a really

  • long name I can’t pronounce so well call it AANAT is key for turning tryptophan into

  • melatonin. And as it turns out, AANAT’s gene responds directly to light.

  • Given recent evidence of a link between melatonin suppression and increased risk of breast cancer,

  • colorectal cancer, and prostate cancer, the researchers of this study warn that using

  • an e-reader like an ipad before bed could have bigger impacts than grogginess the next

  • day.

  • But before everyone freaks out and sets their kindles on fire, there is an important nuance

  • that David Meyer of Gigaom points out; this study only uses an ipad, at full brightness.

  • It doesn’t examine other e-readers like my ancient kindle that still needs a reading

  • lamp, or newer devices that are front-lit like the Kindle Paperwite or the Nook GlowLight.

  • We don’t know if these other ebooks are better, but it’s not fair to lump them all

  • together because they don’t work the same. The study didn’t dial down the backlight

  • of the ipads either, so it’s possible that dimming them down will allow more melatonin

  • to be released.

  • As we love to say here on DNews, more research is needed. Of course if you notice youve

  • been having trouble sleeping after reading off your tablet, maybe try one of the other

  • methods or tone the brightness down a little. If youre still having trouble, try reading

  • your school’s required books. Those always knocked me right out.

  • Of course an e-book will always be missing something we just love about their paper predecessors;

  • that old book smell. Trace explains why we like that over here.

  • Have you guys had trouble sleeping after using a dedicated ebook? Or have you had trouble

  • retaining information when you didn’t with regular books? Let us know in the comments

  • and I’ll see you next time on DNews.

You darn kids with your e-pads and your i-books! In my day words were on dead trees

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