Smartphones may be ruining your sleep

Apr 11, 2014

Many people lie in bed texting and checking their social media accounts on their smartphone or tablet before going to sleep each night - but the habit could play havoc with a good night’s rest.

Many people lie in bed texting and checking their social media accounts on their smartphone or tablet before going to sleep each night - but the habit could play havoc with a good night’s rest.

More than nine out of ten young people expose themselves to the blue light emitted from these devices, causing problems with sleep, a new survey has found.

The survey also showed  that smartphone users regularly get no more than seven hours sleep a night, BBC Newsbeat reported.

Professor Richard Wiseman, who commissioned the YouGov poll described the findings as “extremely worrying”.

More than three-quarters (78 per cent) of the 2,149 adults questioned said they used electronic devices before going to bed.

This rose to 91 per cent among the 18 to 24-year-olds questioned in the survey.

The University of Hertfordshire academic told BBC Newsbeat: “The blue light from these devices suppresses the production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, so it's important to avoid them before bed time.”

Adults are generally thought to require a minimum of seven to eight hours of sleep a night, while guidelines recommend about nine hours a night for teenagers.

The proportion of people thought to be getting too little sleep had risen by a fifth since a ”bedroom poll“ conducted last year by the National Sleep Foundation.

"This is a huge rise, and the results are extremely worrying because getting less than seven hours sleep a night is below the recommended guidelines, and is associated with a range of problems, including an increased risk of weight gain, heart attacks, diabetes and cancer," Professor Wiseman said.

In the survey, people were asked if they used a computer, tablet or smartphone during the two hours before they went to bed. They were also asked about their dreams – just one in ten agreed with the statement: “I would describe my dreams as pleasant.”

The findings come as a survey of 2,000 people suggested that under-25s check their phones 32 times a day.

 

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