Social Media may Lead to Sleep Issues

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – A new survey performed by the University of Pittsburgh has revealed that teens who tend to spend more time on social media may develop sleep issues. The study shows that social media may lead to sleep issues.

We all can attest to the fact that there were many times when we just couldn’t fall asleep. The most sensible solution would be to fire up your phone or your table and take a quick gander at the newsfeed, to check up on our friends.

This habit may be viewed as a good soporific, but in the long run, it seems to do more harm than good. This is the conclusion reached by a group of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, who wanted to investigate the effects of social media on our sleep patterns.

In order to seem to what degree is social media usage capable of affecting our sleep cycles, the team of researchers performed a nationwide survey. The questionnaire had 11 questions, each of them focused on how frequently did the participants used the social platforms.

The survey involved more than 1.700 participants, with ages between 17 and 32 years-old. To measure the impact of social media on sleep patterns, the researchers included some of the most popular social media sites in their survey, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat and Tumblr.

Jessica C. Levinson, a post-doc researcher and the author of the study pointed out that this is the first research project which definitely proves that social media may lead to sleep issues. Moreover, the post-doc researcher stated that the participants who engaged in outdoor activities, with their phones switched to silent mode, are less likely to develop sleep issues in the long run.

Furthermore, these subjects have a better sleep quality and generally, in better help than others. According to the number provided by the study, it would seem that approximately 30 percent of the participants involved in the project had sleeping issues. Each of them would spend an average of 61 minutes per day on social media platforms, cumulating a grand total of 30 visits in a week’s time.

And those who spend more time per day on social media have a 50 percent chance of having problems falling asleep and staying asleep.

Doctor Levinson concluded that those who choose to use social media for too long are prone to develop sleep related issues. Moreover, this study provided and insight on how to increase the quality of sleep by allotting more time to outdoor activities and less time checking out what our best friends posted on our wall.

Social media may lead to sleep issues if we spend more than 1 hour per day or if we use it in order to fall asleep. This happens because the display of our device is capable of stimulating our brain, driving away those long sought z’s.

The article was published online in the journal of Preventive Medicine.

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