Summary: If you are a parent, you may be concerned that using social media too much may affect your children’s well being. A recent study says you may be right, as they find one out of every five young people lose sleep over social media.
A study published in Journal of Youth Studies shows that one out of five young people wake up regularly at night to send or check social media messages.
This activity is causing these teenagers to be three times more likely to feel constantly tired at school than their peers who do not wake up at night to check social media.
There is also evidence that these “social media night owls” are feel less happy.
The study looked at 900 students from ages 12-15. They were asked to fill out a questionnaire about how often they woke up at night to check and use social media, and at what times. They were also asked how happy they were with their life, including things like their friends, appearance and school life.
Always Tired and Not Happy
One in five students reported that they “almost always” wake up to check social media. Girls were more likely to do this than boys.
These “social media night owls” who woke up to use social media were three times as likely to say they were constantly tired at school, compared to their peers who don’t wake up and check social media at night.
Also, these same students who said they were always tired at school were significantly less happy than other young people.
This study brings up the troubling implication that social media are even invading the bedroom and sleep times of our children.
If you are a parents, you may want to make sure you kid does not interrupt their sleep just to check and use social media at night.
If they can do this, they will likely feel less tired at school, and even more happy in general about life.
Journal Reference:
Sally Power, Chris Taylor, Kim Horton. Sleepless in school? The social dimensions of young people’s bedtime rest and routines. Journal of Youth Studies, 2017; http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2016.1273522
