Spending too many hours using the cell phone to slide through the Facebook news feed, Instagram, or chatting on Messenger or WhatsApp can cause health problems like neck pain, eyes, hunchback, and even tendonitis on the thumb.
This can happen because when the person stays a long time in the same position the muscles get weaker and the movements repeated throughout the day, every day, wear out the ligaments, fascias and tendons leading to inflammations and pains.
But sleep with the cell phone next to the bed is also not good because it emits a small radiation, continuous, that despite not causing any serious illness like cancer, can disrupt rest and decrease the quality of sleep.
How to protect yourself
Maintaining good posture while using the cell phone is very important because the tendency is for the person to have his head tilted forward and down, and with that the head weight goes from 5 kg to 27 kg, which is too much for the cervical spine. In order to be able to hold the head in this position so inclined the body needs to adjust and for that reason the hunchback arises and the pain in the neck as well.
The best way to avoid pain in the neck, eyes, hunching and tendinitis in the thumb is to decrease cell phone use, but some other strategies that may help are:
- Hold the phone with both hands and take advantage of the screen rotation to write messages using at least the 2 thumbs;
- Do not use the phone for more than 20 minutes in a row ;
- Keep the screen of the phone near the height of the face, as if it would take a good selfie;
- Do not lean your face over the phone and ensure that the screen is in the same direction as your eyes;
- Do not lean the phone on your shoulder to speak while you write;
- Do not cross your legs to support the tablet or cell phone in your lap, because then you have to lower your head to see the screen.
- If you use your cell phone at night, you can install or connect an application that changes the color emitted by the device to a yellowish or orange tone that does not impair vision and still promotes sleep;
- When you go to sleep, leave the cell phone about 50 cm away from your body.
Also it is important to vary the movements throughout the day and to do stretches through circular movements with the neck, to relieve discomfort in the cervical spine. Here are some examples of exercises that relieve neck and back pain that you can always do before bedtime in the following video:
Practicing exercises regularly is also a good way to strengthen your back muscles, favoring good body posture and there is no better exercise than another, as long as you are well-oriented and one that you enjoy practicing, to become a habit.
