Is Texting Bad for your Health?

Before you pick up your cell phone to send your next text, read this article. Texting may be harming your health in some surprising ways. We all know that texting while driving is not safe, and may cause unnecessary accidents as drivers are completely distracted by their phones, even those who say they can still react fast enough in an emergency. But there are other ways texting is negatively effecting your health, and some of them may surprise you. If you are curious, keep reading. There are things you can do to mitigate these problems.

Text Neck

Many people, when texting, bring their faces down toward the device in their hands. Leaning their heads forward, they round their shoulders. This is very poor posture and may result in text neck. If you have ever had a stiff, achy neck or upper back pain after an extended text conversation, then you know the condition. The human head weighs ten to twelve pounds. When you have good posture, your spine can carry that much weight. Leaning down to look at your phone puts sixty pounds of pressure on your spine and the base of your neck. This pressure can, if it goes on long enough, lead to pinched nerves in your spine. Pinched nerves cause numbness and tingling down your arms and in your hands. To avoid this problem, bring your phone to your eyes. Be aware of your posture and sit straight, with your shoulders back.

Cell Phone Slumber

Cell phones may be causing your sleep problems. Not only do they emit radiation which may cause insomnia in some people, but they also emit blue light. This color of light tells your brain it is time to wake up. If you text in the dark, use a blue light filter on your phone. This does not interfere with your ability to see the device but it does dim the light intensity. To avoid the sleeplessness, ban your phone from the bedroom. If you have no choice and need your phone beside your bed, cut out screen time an hour before sleeping. This will allow you to sleep much better overall.

Repetitive Strain Injuries

People who spend a lot of time texting each day and looking down at their phones are prone to sprains and strains of the joints in their upper body. These repetitive motion injuries are caused by texting excessively, sometimes for hours on end and by bad posture and can be quite painful. Try to limit the amount of time you text each day. If you have to make a lot of texts at a time, make sure to keep good posture. Look up often and take breaks to move around. Also, most phones tend to have dictation services which will allow you to dictate texts to your friends and family. That way, you can still keep in touch.

Texting can be very bad for your health in surprising ways. It can cause injuries, eye strain and car accidents. But with a little prudence these dangers can be avoided and you can still keep in touch with the people you care about.