I’m on a computer most of the day. At least 8 hours for my job, and then a few more hours at night working on various personal projects (definitely not porn). In fact, I’m writing this post at 11 pm. And some studies, like this one by the Germans, suggest that staring at a screen might be ruining our sleep.

And although we all know that looking at a screen for several hours a day can ruin your vision, it also puts your brain on overdrive.

In this fun little study by UCLA, surfing the web (*is that a phrase we still use?) can actually make you smarter. Or at least make your brain more active. I guess old people are doing it to curtail Alzheimer’s or something. However, it’s because we’re surfing the web (or using a computer or playing angry birds) that many avid computer users are suffering from terrible sleep.

Here’s the fun thing though, according to that little image, the human mind is more active when using a computer than reading. Now, I’m no scientist but I would assume that if using a computer makes your brain more active than reading, then the inverse is also true: Reading makes your brain slow down and become less active (for lack of a better word). Focusing on reading a book calms the brain and helps you relax.

This isn’t really breaking news- lots of people suggest reading before bed before bed, I’m just saying that this image (helpfully reversed) is all I need to see to convince myself to keep reading this (so boring)

I’ve been sleeping terribly, and maybe this will help. Especially because it’s after midnight and I’m still watching Veronica Mars and blogging. I’m not sure which one of those is worse.