Checking your phone before bed is seriously damaging your health

Well this is terrifying

Everyday there seems to be a new report warning us of the impact our mobile phones are having on our health, life and relationships.

Just recently we discovered that using public wifi is way more dangerous than anyone realised and and it's also recently been unveiled that our relationships with our phones are actually starting to affect our relationships with our partners in the bedroom (eek).

Now it's been revealed that those of us who are guilty of checking our phone before heading off to bed (aka pretty much everyone) are seriously damaging our health.

Speaking to Business Insider, Dr Dan Siegel has explained just why staring at our phone screens before going to sleep is so harmful.

Dr Siegel, who is a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine, said: 'People are exposing their eyes to this stream of photons that basically tells your brain to stay awake and not go to sleep yet.

You're checking your email, you're looking for texts. It tells your brain don't secrete melatonin yet, it's not time for sleep.'

So basically when you're lying in bed using you're phone to Google 'how to get to sleep' you're actually preventing yourself from getting to sleep sooner, as you're brain's melatonin is still hard at work.

Not only can a bad night's sleep affect your health and lead to conditions such as sleep deprivation, but 'if you don't get seven to nine hours of sleep, you just get five, the toxins remain there for over 95% of people,' Dr Siegel adds.

'It makes your attention falter, your memory is impaired, your ability to think through problems is changed, your insulin that helps regulate your metabolism is turned upside down so you're more likely to gain weight from what you eat. It's actually toxic,' explains Dr Siegel.

So what's the best way to avoid this from happening? Well if you can bring yourself to avoid checking your screen past 9pm, Dr Siegel advices turning your phone off around then to save your health.