By-Pramit Karmakar
Bhubaneswar, Jan 25: Smart phones have now become an indispensable part to human lives. Akin to a beloved partner or pet, your smart phones have also started intruding into your private space. However, experts and doctors well versed with its impact on humans claim its addiction especially at night are growing at the cost of health.
Many avid users of smart phones claim that they are now used to watching their phones for hours before sleeping. “The options have magnified manifolds if we compare what were served on the phone a decade ago. There are several options like Netflix, Titktok, Facebook, Youtube. We are now addicted. We at least watch it for an hour before sleeping,” said Meenakshi Swain, a citizen from Bhubaneswar.
Doctors who are now seeing more numbers of such addicts claim that these unhealthy habits have lead to increased cases of depression, anxiety disorder and other health hazards. Medical experts opine that the best the addicts can do it to shun such practices for their own benefit.
“Our biological clock states that 11pm is the time when we should go to sleep and 6am we should get up. Sleep cycle should always be fixed and not messed with, but if we get engrossed with our phones we are delaying that and interfering with our normal functioning of body,” Dr Anurag Mishra, a Cuttack-based ophthalmologist told theblink.in
Dr Surjeet Sahoo, is a psychiatrist from Bhubaneswar. He claims that World Health Organization (WHO) has already warned that a person should never use a phone more than 21 hours in a week. He said, “According to WHO, a person should not use mobile phones more than seven hours to 21 hours in a week. For children no more than 1 hour is recommended.”
Other psychiatrists claim that now people have started developing phobias leading to increased levels of anxiety. “When a person goes to sleep and doesn’t wake up next to his phone, becomes restless and anxious, there are high chances that he/she is suffering from ‘Nomo Phobia’. It usually affects the age group which is between 10 years to 20 years of old,” said Dr Suvendu Mishra, a psychiatrist from Bhubaneswar.
Eye experts claim that watching phones more than two hours can lead to an ailment termed as ‘Digital Vision Syndrome’ (DVS) which refers to reduction in the blinking ratio. Dr Anurag Mishra, an ophthalmologist said, “When we spend more than two hours on mobile we are likely to get what is known as ‘Digital Vision Syndrome’, where the blink rate of the eye reduces. During normal blinks, tear film of the eye evenly spread on the surface. In DVS, since the blink rate reduces the tear film gets evaporated, resulting in dried eyes,”
He also added, “This should biologically catch people in their 50s and in older ages but now even younger people are getting more affected. When the mobile is close to the eye and you focus onto it, it creates stress in the vision more than it should. This whole process in itself is stress inducing.”
Ophthalmologists claim that we should all find other way of occupying ourselves, which could act as ‘substitution therapies’. Doctors claim that substituting reading against mobile usage can help in getting rid of mobile addiction and also make people more knowledgeable.
(Pramit Karmakar is a news intern with theblink.in)
