A recent study shows that 30 percent of people suffers sleep disturbance due to a frequent use of time spent on social media, compared to people who is more involved in outdoor activities – they of course have but they turn their phone off while on it.

Everyone now has, at least, one account of any of the most popular social networks  – some of them being Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google +, Snapchat, Reddit, Tumblr, Vine, Pinterest, LinkedIn or YouTube – where we spend part of our time checking out any kind of content but, sometimes, we miss important sleep hours doing so.

A recent study shows that 30 percent of people suffers sleep disturbance due to a frequent use of time spent on social media. Photo credit: The Spirit Science
A recent study shows that 30 percent of people suffers sleep disturbance due to a frequent use of time spent on social media. Photo credit: The Spirit Science

Why does this happen? Should we stop from checking social media to fall asleep? A group from the University of Pittsburg investigated this sleep – social media – disturbance where the result showed that the participants – more than 1,700 participants with ages between 17 to 32 years old – spent about an hour for 30 times per week, where 30% of them showed to have high levels of sleep disturbance; this study also, shows which were the most frequently visited social media sites, being those Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat and Tumblr.

Researchers have the theory that this is caused due to a vicious circle-like, where people who have problems falling sleep starts surfing on social media sites hoping to fall asleep quicker – Social media is not a sleeping pill – but according to the study, the effect is quite the opposite because it makes the brain to stay “on” so it never goes to “rest mode”, affecting the sleep quality – remember to put your phone away before going to sleep from now.

High-Quality Sleep

Maybe it’s a bit overreacting, having on mind it’s the first study made of this topic, but it’s a theory– ask someone that stays up until midnight to verify if it’s true or not and ask someone who doesn’t spend time on social media sites at night –.

How could we get then some high-quality sleep? One alternative is doing sports since exercising keeps you mental and physically health, and makes your body tired so it’s easier to fall asleep after doing an intensive workout. Also keeping you busy – a full schedule can drain all the energy from both your body and mind, so what is the consequence? A guaranteed night full of restoring sleep. So what do we learned from this study? You can surf on your favorite social media sites, but not more than 1 hour if you want to sleep tight.

Source: Albany Daily Star