And neither should you, according to a recent study by neuroscientists at Ohio State University Medical Center. Tests showed that hamsters exposed to dim light overnight were more likely to exhibit signs of depression than their rodent brethren who caught 40 winks in the dark. Business Insider writes that, thanks to computers and TVs, “a surge in exposure to artificial light at night in the last 50 years had coincided with rising rates of depression, particularly among women, who are twice as prone as men.” Plus, how many of us has tried to watch an episode of Breaking Bad or The Wire right before going to bed? Going to sleep is not an option when my brain is all “Yo, Mr. White! Just calm down for a second,” and “Gotta go check out who’s been in the vacants.” And now depression? No thank you. Reach for the chamomile and a book instead.
The good news is that if you are the type who likes to leave glowing screen lights flickering while you snooze, the symptoms are somewhat reversible. For hamsters, at least, after two weeks of going back to a normal cycle of dark and light (night and day), they were pretty much back to normal, which is most likely this:
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