Screentime Side Effects: 4 Ways to Manage Hormonal Health Through Daily Screentime

Spending too much time staring at screens be it computers or phones – can wreak havoc on your hormones.

How much is too much of screen time? Ever since COVID pandemic, screen time has increased at every age level drastically. With the new work-from-home concept and transition of the world into the online realm, screen work has increased exponentially. However,  there are lots of ways how the blu light from the screens affect us. It is bad for our eyes, physical health, mental health, skin as well as hormonal health.

Yes, hormonal health too gets affected by screentime. And, so spending too much time staring at screens be it computers or phones – can wreak havoc on your hormones.

3 Ways How Screen Time Affect Hormones

1.Blocking melatonin production – Prolonged exposure to screens- even passive viewing- causes sleep disorders, and thereby affect levels of the melatonin hormone, which regulates sleep and plays an important role in strengthening the immune system. Sleep deprivation thus damages the immune system and may be considered an indirect cause creating risk of cancer and other illnesses.

2.Releases stress hormones – The lights and stimuli from screens stress our anatomy, and screen time causes repeated stress on the Central Nervous System. As a result, we can become angry, impulsive, isolated, aggressive and less empathetic.

3.Changes in appetite-regulating hormones (Leptin & Ghrelin) : With high screen time negatively affecting our ability to fall asleep. Furthermore, lack of sleep has been shown to downregulate leptin (our “satiety hormone”) and upregulate ghrelin (our “hunger hormone”), overall increasing our hunger and food intake leading to weight gain and other health issues