Avoid Radiant Light

The best thing you can do before going to bed is to avoid exposing your eyes to excessive, radiant light. If you currently spend your evenings watching TV, scrolling your phone, or using the computer you should consider including the habit of turning off all screens 30 minutes before bed.  Use this time prior to bed should be spent practicing meditation or prayer with little to no light.

Even better would be to dim the screen as soon as it becomes dark in order to relax the eyes. The brightness of your screen can usually be adjusted by pressing a button on your keyboard or monitor. In addition, laptop screens tend to dim automatically when they are powered by batteries rather than an electrical outlet.

Dimming Your Lights

Night is dark for a reason. Dimming the lighting in your entire home when the sun sets is a wise practice. And it is highly recommended that you avoid turning on the lights at all costs. If you cannot navigate safely, use the small flashlight to light your way, but do not stare directly at it. 

No other lights should be present in your environment other than those that are necessary for navigating to the bathroom. Add a small night light in case you are awake in the middle of the night to help you avoid having to look directly into a light beam.

Sleeping Without Electricity

It’s only been in the last 200 years that we started living in a world where electricity is readily available. Prior to that, electricity was a beautiful and frightening phenomenon that danced as lightning in the sky on stormy nights. There is no doubt that the electromagnetic fields (or EMFs) produced by electrical devices are capable of affecting the physiology of human beings because our bodies are also “electrical” in nature.

In November 1989, the Department of Energy reported that “It has now become generally accepted that there are, indeed, biological effects due to field exposure.” Until we know how to live more safely with electricity, try to give your body a break from EMFs for a few hours each day. Simply let your home “go to sleep” when you go to sleep.

Obviously, since you’re reading this on a phone or computer, I’m not recommending you avoid electricity altogether. I do, however, recommend you take a break from it each night. As your body sleeps during the night, the electric and magnetic activity between your cells slows down. Or at least, it wants to.

The Effects of Electronics on Sleep

While most of us aren’t physically aware of EMFs, some people are super–sensitive to the interference electricity can cause in our bodies. Here are a few excerpts from a person who suffered greatly from EMFs: 

“Lights… I felt energy when they were on… dimmer switches really were bad and we removed them this spring. I could not go into the living room as my balance and energy were terrible…the ringing in my head got louder…it isn’t exactly painful but I really don’t know how to describe the sensation. When appliances were used, I had to leave the room as the energy went into me from my feet up. We turned off the electricity in the bedrooms totally because the plug at the head of the bed pumped energy into my head all night.”

If your body is being bombarded with EMFs, it may not be able to achieve complete rest. In our modern world, there are two factors at play. Firstly, there are the radiations produced by electrical devices, and secondly, there is the additional factor of wireless communication.

If you enjoy listening to calming music before bed, you might want to switch to analogue. Airpods transmit electromagnetic fields (EMFs), as do your phones with Bluetooth (a technology that has been unleashed on the environment without any oversight). We are bathed in wireless radiation 24/7 to power our electronic devices. If you want to be soothed to sleep with music, it may be impossible, but you could try and find a battery–operated source with its own speaker.

Removing Electronics For Better Sleep

Considering how much electronics affect our sleep, let’s look at ways to prepare your environment for sleeping well.

Make sure you do not have a bedroom located adjacent to a wall where there is a circuit breaker or fuse box.. 

Remove all unnecessary electronic devices from your sleeping environment. This is definitely NOT a place for televisions, speakers, tablets, “Alexa”, video game consoles, and other electronic devices — all of which may continue to produce EMFs long after they have been deactivated.

While all of these methods are helpful, turning off the power to all rooms of your home that don’t require electricity is your best option. For most of us this would be everything but the refrigerator. At the very least, make sure that there is no electricity going to the room you sleep in or any of the adjacent rooms.

How Do I Know That It’s Helping?

Some individuals are more sensitive to EMFs than others. Nonetheless, many still feel the difference when they sleep without electricity. You should be able to note whether you feel more rested in the morning or whether you’ve slept better. Simply taking an eight-hour break from EMFs should provide overall benefits with your ability to relax, your energy levels and your clarity of thought.