Do you ever use your phone before bed? It could be making you gain weight, says an expert

A HEALTH expert has discussed the worrying dangers of using our mobile phones before bed and revealed that it could be causing us to gain weight.

For many people, a late-night snoop on our smartphones or a binge watch of TV shows on our tablets has become a common habit.

And although sometimes it can cause us to lose some sleep and leave us feeling tired in the morning, it has become our bedtime routine.

But, in a video for , Dr Daniel Siegel revealed that using our smartphones before bed could be causing us to pile on the pounds.

He said: “People are exposing their eyes to a stream of photons from these objects that basically tells your brain, ‘stay awake.’

“That light beam tells your brain ‘don’t secrete melatonin yet, it’s not time for sleep.'”

Getting into a habit of scrolling through your smartphone before bed forces you to stay up later and as a result you get less rest.

As Dr Siegel explains, if you get less than seven hours of sleep a night, your glial cells are unable to clean up the toxins our neurones produce.

There are a small percentage of people who aren’t impacted by these toxins, but for the 95 per cent of us that are, our insulin levels suffer.

The role of insulin is to help regulate our metabolism but if we don’t get enough sleep, it “turns it upside down” and causes us to gain weight.

Also, tiredness increases our hunger, so we’re more likely to eat more and not burn off the calories because our metabolism has slowed down.

Dr Siegel strongly advises people to turn off their screens at least an hour before bed and break the toxic habit.

And there are a number of health benefits to doing this, including sharpening up our memory, increasing our memory span and improving our problem-solving skills.