LED

Unplugging before bedtime, as I have learned from Matthew Walker, has hefty benefit on the release of melatonin, a powerful messenger to signal "time to sleep". How much can reading on an iPad  suppress melatonin release compared to reading on a printed book? A lot, it turns out. By over 50 percent. It's a good idea, obviously, to unplug before hitting the pillow.

That is easier said than done.

Knowingly or not, we might stare at blue LED lights from laptop screens, smartphones, or iPad at night. I've tried to be one of the responsible parents nudging my daughter stay away from electronic devices before sleep. In fact, a family ritual of our own is to pick a book, mostly a graphic novel, to go with bedtime snack before catching some z's. Try as we might, we won't - can't, in fact - strictly stick to the no-screen-time-before-bed rule. Let me say, with all the moderation I can summon: at best, we try not to let the electronic devices rule the roost. But hey, I just say "try not to." So, yes, I failed now and then.

My daughter's snack tonight was string cheese, something new to us. After peeling open the string cheese, I and my daughter looked at each other, musing on the proper way to eat string cheese. We both scratched our head, and ended up taking a detour to YouTube for the answer.

You get the point. Staying from the screen isn't easy.