Technology and Sleep: How Electronic Media Exposure Has Impacted Core Concepts of Sleep Medicine
TL;DR: What constitutes “sleep latency” or more importantly, how does it compare to the measures used in the most common sleep questionnaires?
Abstract: Picture the following common scenario: A middle-aged man does not use electronic media all evening. He then goes to bed at 10 p.m. and switches off the light immediately. However, instead of going ...
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TL;DR: For instance, this paper found that adolescents who increasingly invested in social networking reported increased depressed mood, with around 53% of this association explained by the indirect effect of increased sleep disruptions.
Abstract: Concerns are growing about adolescents’ problematic social networking and possible links to depressed mood and externalizing behavior. Yet there remains little understanding of underlying processes that may account for these associations, including the mediating role of sleep disruption. This study tests this putative mediating process and examines change in problematic social networking investment and disrupted sleep, in relation to change in depressed mood and externalizing behavior. A sample of 874 students (41% male; 57.2% Caucasian; baseline M age = 14.4 years) from 27 high schools were surveyed. Participants’ problematic social networking, sleep disruption, and psychopathology (depressed mood, externalizing behaviors) were measured annually over 3 years. Longitudinal mediation was tested using latent trajectories of problematic social networking use, sleep disruption, and psychopathology. Both problematic social networking and sleep disruption underwent positive linear growth over time. Adolescents who increasingly invested in social networking reported increased depressed mood, with around 53% of this association explained by the indirect effect of increased sleep disruptions. Further, adolescents who increasingly invested in social networking also reported increased externalizing behavior; some of this relation was explained (13%) via increased sleep disruptions. However an alternative model in which increased externalizing was associated with increased social networking, mediated by sleep disruptions, indicated a reciprocal relation of similar magnitude. It is important for parents, teachers, and psychologists to minimize the negative effects of social networking on adolescents’ psychopathology. Interventions should potentially target promoting healthy sleep habits through reductions in social networking investment and rescheduling usage away from bedtime.
62 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that going to bed may not be synonymous with going to sleep, and that this fragmentation of bedtime results in a two‐step sleep displacement, and sleep displacement should be redefined as a two-step process.
Abstract: This study argues that going to bed may not be synonymous with going to sleep, and that this fragmentation of bedtime results in a two-step sleep displacement. We separated bedtime (i.e. going to bed) from shuteye time (i.e. attempting to go to sleep once in bed) and assessed the prevalence of electronic media use in both time slots. A convenience sample of 338 adults (aged 18-25 years, 67.6% women) participated in an online survey. Results indicated a gap of 39 min between bedtime and shuteye time, referred to as 'shuteye latency'. Respondents with a shuteye latency of, respectively, ≤30 min, ≤1 or >1 h, were 3.3, 6.1 and 9.3 times more likely to be rated as poor sleepers compared to those who went to sleep immediately after going to bed. Before bedtime, volume of electronic media use (17 h 55 min per week) was higher than non-media activities (14 h per week), whereas the opposite was true after bedtime (media = 3 h 41 min, non-media = 7 h 46 min). Shuteye latency was related exclusively to prebedtime media use. Findings confirmed the proposed fragmentation of bedtime. Sleep displacement should therefore be redefined as a two-step process, as respondents not only engage in the delay of bedtime, but also in the delay of shuteye time once in bed. Theoretical, methodological and practical implications are discussed.
60 citations
58 citations
TL;DR: Blue light exposure may suppress melatonin, increase alertness, and interfere with sleep in young, healthy volunteers and in animals, and future developments must address the potential impact of blue light on NIF functions for healthy individuals and those with mental illness.
Abstract: Objectives: Two recent scientific breakthroughs may alter the treatment of mental illness, as discussed in this narrative review. The first was the invention of white light-emitting diodes ...
39 citations
TL;DR: Results indicate that when designing interventions for adolescent sleep, multiple lifestyle factors need to be considered, whereas country of residence may play a lesser role.
38 citations
Cites background from "Technology and Sleep: How Electroni..."
...Therefore, given the large effects of mobile and Internet phone use, it may be that parents also need to increase their involvement by setting a “bedtime” for electronic devices [46], rather than just adolescents themselves....
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References
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TL;DR: Findings from a meta-analysis of 41 surveys of worldwide adolescent sleep patterns and problems published in the last decade suggest a worldwide delayed sleep-wake behavior pattern exists consistent with symptoms of Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder.
876 citations
TL;DR: There is a need to more clearly understand the mechanisms involved in regulating sleep duration and patterns and to identify high-risk individuals who are in greatest need of preventive strategies.
271 citations
"Technology and Sleep: How Electroni..." refers background in this paper
...The past decades have seen a worrying decrease in sleep time (Bixler, 2009; Cappuccio, Miller, & Lockley, 2010)....
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TL;DR: It was showed that the use of mobile phones for calling and for sending text messages after lights out is associated with sleep disturbances among Japanese adolescents, however, there were some limitations, such as small effect sizes, in this study.
Abstract: Study objective The objective of this study was to examine the association between the use of mobile phones after lights out and sleep disturbances among Japanese adolescents. Design and setting This study was designed as a cross-sectional survey. The targets were students attending junior and senior high schools throughout Japan. Sample schools were selected by cluster sampling. Self-reported anonymous questionnaires were sent to schools for all students to fill out. Participants A total of 95,680 adolescents responded. The overall response rate was 62.9%, and 94,777 questionnaires were subjected to analysis. Intervention N/A. Measurements and results Daily mobile phone use, even if only for a brief moment every day, was reported by 84.4%. Moreover, as for use of mobile phones after lights out, 8.3% reported using their mobile phone for calling every day and 17.6% reported using it for sending text messages every day. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that mobile phone use for calling and for sending text messages after lights out was associated with sleep disturbances (short sleep duration, subjective poor sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, and insomnia symptoms) independent of covariates and independent of each other. Conclusion This study showed that the use of mobile phones for calling and for sending text messages after lights out is associated with sleep disturbances among Japanese adolescents. However, there were some limitations, such as small effect sizes, in this study. More studies that examine the details of this association are necessary to establish strategies for sleep hygiene in the future.
269 citations
"Technology and Sleep: How Electroni..." refers background in this paper
...It continues after lights out, often on portable devices such as tablet computers or smart phones (Munezawa et al., 2011; Van den Correspondence should be addressed to Liese Exelmans, School for Mass Communication Research, KU Leuven, Parkstraat 45, 3000 Leuven, Belgium....
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TL;DR: This paper found that up to a third of 13 and 15-year-old children in Belgium reported receiving incoming messages after lights out at least once a month and that the number of times the phone rings signals what the caller is trying to convey, a technique adolescents use to tell each other what time they leave for school or to answer messages.
Abstract: THE USE OF THE MODERN MEANS OF INTERPERSONAL AND MASS COMMUNICATION HAS BECOME AN ESSENTIAL PART OF BEING YOUNG. CHILDREN'S bedrooms are connected to global networks through internet access and mobile phones.1 Heavy use of television (TV), internet and computer games have been linked to reduced time in bed2 and to sleep disturbances3 although adolescents often claim they need these media as “sleep aids.”4 Even when they sleep the interplay between media and sleep does not cease. Playing computer games has been shown to shorten REM sleep in adults,5 and many adolescents report dreaming about what they saw on TV or in a computer game.6 Little is known about the potential impact of the mobile phone on sleep. One brief cross sectional study found that up to a third of 13- and 15-year-old children in Belgium reported receiving incoming messages after lights out at least once a month.7 Other existing sleep studies only dealt with biological effects of emissions.8 The electromagnetic fields produced by mobile phones, for instance, may have an effect on the sleep electroencephalogram,9 and evening exposure to mobile phone emissions may affect melatonin production.10
Observational studies of mobile phone behaviors of adolescents suggest that they engage in a lot of calling and text messaging behaviors. An Italian study described “ringing,” a practice involving one adolescent dialing another whereby the call is interrupted before the other person is able to answer it. The other telephone thus displays the message that a call from a particular number failed, which is a way of telling that person “I was thinking of you.” Interestingly, neither person is charged for this communication.11 Even more elaborate is “bombing” in which the number of times the phone rings signals what the caller is trying to convey, a technique adolescents use to tell each other what time they leave for school or to answer messages (by common agreement one ring may mean “yes” and two may mean “no”).12 Much of the use of the mobile phone involves the simple pleasure of being permanently connected to a group of people: one popular pastime is sending “chain messages” to a number of friends.12 These behaviors appear to be common among all adolescents. A comparison of studies from several countries showed that there are many similarities between mobile phone cultures of young people in several European countries.12
The aim of the current study was to chart the extent to which adolescents use their mobile phone for sending and/or receiving text messages and/or calls after lights out and to examine whether this predicted higher levels of tiredness.
225 citations