reading-in-bed1Here’s some perspective on all those recent Kindle Fire Blue Shade health stories. A new study published at PLOS Medicine, the medical division of this open access scientific publishing project, has found evidence that “prolonged sitting and unhealthy sleep patterns” are major risk factors in personal health.

The study was based on “a large Australian cohort of middle-aged and older adults,” with six years of follow-up done on “231,048 participants for 1,409,591 person-years.” During the study, “15,635 deaths were registered,” and “there was a strong relationship between the lifestyle risk index score and all-cause mortality.” The most common risk behavior patterns, accounting “for more than 90% of the participants,” involved a combination of poor sleep and prolonged sitting.

So if you take your ebook or paper volume to bed and read it there, you may be cutting into your sleep time somewhat. But you still won’t be doing as much damage to your health as you would be reading late into the night at your desk or on your sofa. And yes, this study may be more junk science, but the statistical correlations this time seem harder to ignore. Time for more audiobooks while jogging, maybe? Falling asleep while reading might be a golden way to go, meanwhile.

 

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