Happy Saturday Reader!
Thank you for taking time to read — and I love hearing from so many fellow book lovers who read because it brings you a little peace in the midst of a chaotic life.
More than a handful of you took time to share that sometimes you have a hard time putting down a great book — to the extent that it impacts your sleep.
I've learned that most nights, reading impacts my sleep in a positive way.
🛌 Reading: Bedtime friend or foe?
After a day of dealing with people, enduring the chaos of the political season, or just trying to make it through the latest round of doom scrolling, winding down at night can be tough.
The constant barrage of news, Netflix, video games, and social media keeps our brains buzzing when they should be slowing down.
Research consistently shows that blue light from screens suppresses melatonin production—the hormone responsible for regulating sleep cycles. It’s not just the content from endless “the sky is falling” news alerts and keyboard warriors on social media that keeps us up.
Blue light itself messes with our mood and mental health by disrupting sleep and increasing anxiety.
As this article in Mental Health America explains, blue light exposure also affects our ability to manage anxiety and depression by throwing off our circadian rhythms.
Stepping away from screens and the anxiety-inducing content is crucial for letting your brain shift gears. And this is where reading comes in.
Personally, I’ve found that early evening is the perfect time to pick up an action-packed novel—it helps me focus on something engaging that pulls me out of the day’s stress.
But when it’s time to really slow down before bed, I often turn to non-fiction—history, biographies, memoirs—genres that tell my brain it’s time to unwind and get ready for sleep.
Here's the nighttime reading ritual that works for me most of the time:
My Nighttime Reading Picks
- Early Evening Reads: Thrillers, action-packed novels, or gripping storylines. If it's fun or somehow compelling, I'm all in during what my late grandmother would call "the fore-part of the evening."
- Pre-Bedtime Reads: Non-fiction, especially history or biography, to ease into relaxation. If it's a little slower paced, requires at least a little attention to detail, and it scratches that itch for curiosity, that's what I'm usually reading during the "aft-part of the night."
There are times, though, when none of this works, and there are times when I defy my self-imposed screen-time curfew.
🥱 Full confession Part 1: Sometimes nothing works. Last week, I dealt with a fierce bout of insomnia and ended up reading 5 books — page-turning and easy-to-read thrillers and a couple of historical fiction novels.
📺 Full confession Part 2: Sometimes, there's something on TV we're genuinely excited about. I’m a huge baseball geek and a San Diego Padres fan, so with the West Coast playoff games coming up next week, I might just have to break my no-blue-light-before-bed rule.
