Goodnight iPad is a new children's book based off the classic Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. As much as this is a children's bedtime story it also is a lesson to be learned by most adults.

Ann Droyd playfully pokes fun at our "wired in" lifestyles that we are now passing down to our children. She describes a family kept awake by the gadgets that surround them. 

Droyd touches on this rapid growing epidemic of sleep issues due to the ever-nagging hold technology has on us as a society. We have been growing more and more attached to the technology and devices that are supposed to make our lives easier but they're actually hurting our well-being because we don't know when to "power off."

Various studies have been done to examine the effects of technology use prior to bed and the results are astounding. The constant connection with the world (literally) leaves our minds scattered and unable to shut down and focus on much needed deep sleep. 

And this is not a practice we should preach to our children. An assistant professor at Stony Brook University Medical Center, Lauren Hale, said, “Higher use of these potentially more sleep-disruptive technologies among younger generations may have serious consequences for physical health, cognitive development and other measures of well being."

So in this world of constant "bings, bongs and beeps of emails and tweets" where do we say stop? I personally get anxiety of turning off my phone--even if I'm just sleeping. It's human nature to want to feel connected and now that we are able to be digitally connected to nearly everyone and every thing, it's hard to prioritize what needs to be looked at now and what can wait for morning.

Personally, I think I'm going to try harder to have an hour "wind down" session every night before bed where I say goodnight to all my devices and the internet at large and do yoga or read a physical book. Disconnect myself. Unplug.