You again stayed up all night, consuming memes, playing video games or just wasting your time in general. Finally, at around 10 a.m., you collapsed at the nearest bed and fell asleep. You wake up feeling and looking like a zombie. It's already 6 p.m. Tonight, the cycle repeats again. Is there any rest for the weary?
Sleep is a bodily function, like breathing, sneezing or coughing. You can mess with it up to a point but you're risking screwing something up. On this page, I'll try to explain what causes sleep problems and how to fix them.
The internal clockmaster in our body is melatonin, a brain hormone. Melatonin has been directly linked to exposure to light through the eyes. People stuck in caves had their circadian rhythms messed up too, causing them to think time has stopped due to the lack of outside light stimuli.
If you're staring at screens to the wee hours in the night, you'll be exposing yourself to anti-melatonin stimuli that keeps you awake and messes up your sleep schedule
At night, dim all the lights and avoid turning on the light fixtures; use a desk lamp or a nightlight instead. Dim the monitor using f.lux on Windows and the smartphone screen using Twilight on Android. Set up a cutoff hour for using/dimming of monitors, screens and lights, such as 9 p.m. and stick to it. The more light you avoid at night, the more melatonin will be secreted in your brain, leading to a deeper, more restful sleep.