Teens glued to their screens are 3 times as likely to be sleep deprived

YOUNG people who spend too much time on social media are three times as likely to be sleep-deprived.

Visiting sites such as Facebook and Twitter for just an hour a day raises the risk of sleeplessness by 46 per cent, a study found.

Researchers said blue light from smartphones and tablets disrupted the natural body clock. Teenagers who stay up late posting photographs and comments also risk changing their sleep cycle so it becomes harder to fall asleep.

The academics from the University of Ottawa studied more than 5,200 people aged 11 to 20, who were asked how often they used social networking sites and how many hours they slept.

Those who spent five or more hours a day on social media were three times as likely to be sleep-deprived than those who did not use the internet sites, they found. Children should get up to 11 hours of sleep a night when aged 11 to 13, and up to ten hours in their later teens. They risk falling behind at school and emotional problems if they fail to reach these targets.

Study co-author Dr Jean-Philippe Chaput said: ‘The fact that only one hour of social media use per day may negatively influence sleep is not trivial. It is possible that insufficient sleep also results in heavy use of social media, highlighting the possibility of a vicious circle.’

The study found girls and young women are more likely to use social media than males, and for longer – being twice as likely to spend more than five hours a day on the websites. Almost two-thirds of the 5,242 young people in the study got less than their recommended amount of sleep.

Dr Chaput said: ‘Mechanisms underlying the association between social media use and insufficient sleep remain unclear. These can include the direct displacement of sleep duration by social media, generally related to late-night use, which could delay bedtime.

‘It is also increasingly recognised that the blue light of the screen suppresses levels of the sleep hormone melatonin, resulting in delayed sleep onset and poorer sleep quality.’

The study, published in the journal Acta Paediatrica, follows research showing children who spend more than an hour a day on social media are more miserable.

The lead author of that research, Professor Jean Twenge, from San Diego State University, said of the Canadian study: ‘The findings are consistent with other studies finding links between electronic device use and shortened sleep among teens.’