Today’s Big Story

Screens Before Bed

The blue light isn’t the only reason it’s a bad idea to look at screens at bedtime

We know it’s not great, looking at our phones just before trying to get to sleep. Or maybe you let that “skip to the next episode” warning take you right into another episode of the show you’re streaming. We all want more sleep, but we’re not willing to give up screen time to do it, right?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recently commissioned an online survey of more than 2,000 adults in the U.S. and found that 91% reported they have lost sleep because they stayed up to binge-watch multiple episodes of a TV show. More than 75% of respondents said they stayed up past their bedtime to online shop. Somewhat counterproductively, the survey also revealed that when people have trouble falling asleep, 50% of Americans turn to watching TV and 43% go on their phones. That’s not great.

Algorithms designed to be engaging compel most of us to scroll much longer than we intend to. "Now it’s 30 minutes later, when you wanted to watch a couple videos and fall asleep," says Melissa Milanak, an associate professor at the Medical University of South Carolina who specializes in sleep health. Doctors have also linked doomscrolling to poor mental and physical health outcomes.

Over half of Americans routinely spend time on their phones within an hour of going to sleep, according to a recent survey by the National Sleep Foundation. That’s the very latest we should shut off devices, experts say. The brain needs to wind down long before bedtime to get the restorative deep sleep that helps the body function, Milanak told the Associated Press. “You wouldn’t take a casserole out of the oven and stick it right in the fridge. It needs to cool down,” she says. “Our brains need to do that too.”

And, of course, there’s the issue with light. “There are a million and one ways screens create problems with sleep,” said Lisa Strauss, a licensed psychologist specializing in cognitive behavioral treatment of sleep disorders. The brain, she said, processes electric light—not just a smartphone’s much-maligned blue light—as sunshine. That suppresses melatonin production, delaying deep sleep. Even very little bright-light exposure in bed has an impact and can ruin what could’ve been a perfect night’s sleep.

Michael Cohen Testifies in Trump Criminal Trial

He told jurors about his work: cleaning up problems, making threats and burying embarrassing stories

Michael Cohen implicated his former boss Donald Trump in the hush money scheme to pay Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 election, saying he doled out $130,000 on Trump’s order to “just do it” and was promised reimbursement.

Over nearly five hours of testimony, Cohen painted a searing portrait of his relationship with Trump, decoding their shady vernacular and spotlighting the conduct at the center of the first criminal trial of an American president. Prosecutors will seek to build on his testimony when he returns to the stand today to nail down their case that the ex-president broke the law by falsifying financial records to hide the pay-off in the culmination of a scheme to mislead voters.

According to NBC News, prosecutors have been preparing Cohen for this moment for more than a year. They played an audio recording of Trump directing Cohen to use cash to buy the story about another accuser, Karen McDougal. Cohen also testified that his payment was discussed with Trump and his former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, in Trump's office. He said Weisselberg told him he would be paid $35,000 monthly over 12 months to cover a total payment of $420,000. “Everything required Mr. Trump’s sign-off,” Cohen said.

Canadian Wildfire Smoke Blows Into U.S.

Is this going to become a regular thing?

Officials in western Canada warned of “volatile wildfire activity,” as dozens of blazes burn in dry conditions across the country, triggering evacuation orders in affected regions and air quality alerts in several U.S. states this week. According to Gizmodo, the news is causing plenty of anxiety in Americans “who are dreading the idea of spending yet another summer choking when they go outside.”

So far, the smoke has hit states like Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin over the weekend, but the toxic air is currently moving east and south—with experts predicting it will arrive in upstate New York later this week. As the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency explains in its latest alert, the air is currently unhealthy for everyone. But people in sensitive groups need to take extra precautions, including pregnant people, those with asthma, children and the elderly.

The U.S. experiences at least 16,000 excess deaths attributable to wildfire smoke each year, according to analysis from the National Bureau of Economic Research—which is considered a very conservative estimate. That number could rise to about 27,500 deaths annually by 2050.

Let’s Talk About Recycling

Memorize these rules for recycling takeout containers and keep the system running smoothly

Look, there’s no shame in treating yourself to delivery or take out, but learning to properly recycle those food containers is part of being a conscious consumer in 2024, right? After all, recycling has been around for decades and yet many questions about what can—and can’t—go into your bins persist.

If you (like most of us) are just guessing which takeout containers are recyclable and which ones aren't, you're likely getting it wrong and thus clogging up the system. I assumed those shiny black plastic boxes were recyclable and that pizza boxes were good to go in with the rest of the cardboard. I was wrong about both. “Part of the problem is that we expect all of this to be intuitive and it’s not,” Reid Lifset, a research scholar at the Yale School of the Environment, told the Washington Post. “It’s a complicated system.” Well, that makes me feel a little better.

Part of the larger issue is that many of the rules are dependent on your local facility, so check with your service provider and city. According to CNET, not all plastic is easily recycled. Things like utensils and those black take out containers aren’t typically recyclable and need to be tossed. On the bright side, you don’t need to wash everything thoroughly to recycle. Simply rinsing away heavy food particles is sufficient.

The Long Read

The U.S. is breeding a new generation of avocado eaters

Just start.