OH! Magazine - Australian Version January 2018 | Page 19

2. Sleep: you will eventually sleep. But
the quality of your sleep will be
significantly impacted when you are
sleeping with elevated levels of
cortisol, according to Dr Michael
Breus. You need high quality sleep to
function at your optimum, thriving
levels. Harvard researchers said, 'In
the past 50 years, there has been a
decline in average sleep duration and
quality, with adverse consequences
on general health.' Did you know that
better quality sleep can equate to
more weight loss? According to Dr
Breus regular exercise not only helps
us to sleep better, but sleep actually
helps us to exercise better because
we have more energy and the ability
to heal is quicker.
3. Overall health: Harvard researchers
linked working the night shift and
exposure to blue light at night to
several types of cancer (breast,
prostate) diabetes, heart disease,
obesity and an increased risk for
depression.
How to manage it
Here are a few nifty tricks you can use to
help protect yourself and leverage
technology intelligently.
Use blue light blocker lenses/glasses: If
you’re a glasses or contact lense wearer,
you can ask your optometrist if they have
access to a new range of lenses that
contain blue light blocker components.
The lenses don’t physically look any
different, but they do protect your eyes
(like untinted sunglasses) from the effects
of blue light. Night time tech detox: You already know
what to do here. Is looking at the latest
Insta post of someone’s homemade bone
broth more of a priority than the quality of
your health and skin? If it is, get a life
coach (sorry). If it’s not, then switch off at
least an hour before bed. And if you
already do, then good on you for taking
control of your health.
I.flux: Creators of technology is so smart!
Some whizz-bang genius has come up with
a way for our screens to naturally tone
down its lighting in accordance with our
own circadian rhythms (i.e. the lighting on
your screens will darken as the sun sets).
The tool you can download to have this
impact is called I.flux. Here are a few things you can do to fill that
newfound spare time:
Lighting settings: The latest upgrades to
phone operating systems now have an
option in the settings to switch to ‘night
time’, which darkens the screen
automatically for you – it’s like a pre-
installed I.flux on your phone.
Mood lighting: In the evening, start using
natural evening light (e.g. candles) and
dimming the light switcher down to enjoy
darker light settings. Houses lit up like
Christmas trees is definitely not the goal.
At night time, the darker, the better.
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Prepare your meals for tomorrow
Talk to your partner
Spend quality time with your partner
(wink, wink!)
Do something creative and hands on
that will relax you – sewing, knitting,
play music.
Read – fiction only, self-development
and business books are for lunchtimes
and the morning only as they can be
far too excitable.
Rebecca Mason
Rebecca is the owner of Better Skin Better
Life, which provides helpful tips for
healthy skin. Rebecca was named in
Anthill Australia's 30Under30 and has
been featured in BRW, AFR and
SmartCompany. Find out more at
www.betterskinbetter.life
OH! MAGAZINE ( JANUARY 2018 )
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