Are Your Browsing Habits Affecting Your Sleep?
If you’re like Mari, you and your computer(s) are attached at the hip. You go for walks in the park together, go to work together, and even sleep in the same room. Mari and her computers, named L (school computer) and Methuselah (family computer), are pretty tight.
Mari has been slowly realizing that the friendship is wearing Mari down. Mari’s been waking up feeling like she was in barfights every night, and falling asleep between midnight and three am. Methuselah and L may be to blame. This Reuters Health article says:
People who spend more pre-bedtime hours using the Internet or watching television are more likely to report that they don’t get enough sleep, even though they sleep almost as long as people who spend fewer pre-bedtime hours in front of a computer or television screen, survey findings show.
“While many people use electronic media, such as the Internet, it should be noted that the longer media use before sleep can trigger (self-perceived) insufficient sleep,” lead researcher Dr. Nakamori Suganuma, of Osaka University, Japan, told Reuters Health.
He and colleagues obtained data on self-perceived sleep problems and the use of electronic media prior to bedtime from a total of 5,875 Japanese respondents to two separate Internet-based surveys. Their findings are published in the journal Sleep and Biological Rhythms.
Nearly half of the respondents associated their lack of sleep with electronic media use before bedtime. Those reporting longer electronic media use were also more likely to report insufficient sleep.
Overall, 29 percent of light users (less than 1.5 hours) listed electronic media use as a possible cause of their insufficient sleep. By comparison, 40 percent of medium users (1.5 to 3 hours) and 54 percent of heavy users (more than 3 hours) said the same.
However, longer Internet and television use before bedtime did not correlate with less actual sleep. While heavy users averaged about 3 more hours in front of computer or television screens than light users, the heavy users averaged only about 12 minutes less pre-workday sleep time than light users.
Notably, Suganuma said, “Internet use affected self-perceived insufficient sleep more than TV watching…not only in younger Internet users but also in middle-aged or aged Internet users.”
Great, guys! Just great. You’re making Mari trick herself into feeling like she’s been in barfights every morning.
Mari has been trying to stay off the computer after dark by watching TV late at night instead (which makes Mari really sleepy). It didn’t work last night, though, because Mari forgot to turn the computer off before Mari watched TV, then went to turn it off and kinda…started screwing around on it. Whoops! Oh, well, there’s always tonight to try again, right?
Do you use the Internet before bed? Have you noticed it affecting how you feel you slept?
Thanks to GeekSugar for the original find.
Science 
28 August 2007, 14:02
internet, internet browsing, internet use, internet use and sleep, sleep, sleep habitsYou can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
That’s really interesting. I spend about 4 hours online at night, not counting the 8 hours I spend in front of a monitor at work…and I have been feeling more tired since we got the Internet at our house…Hmm….
Haha. I read this at 11pm.
Yeah. lately I have been on the computer before bed for a few hours, next day I’m tired and get worse headaches. (i get headache anyways…but they are worse when I’m on the internet before bed).
Interesting though. I hadn’t connected the two. Not that it will change my habits though.
Do you use the Internet before bed?
Yes.
Have you noticed it affecting how you feel you slept?
)
I don’t sleep. At least not more that four hours a night (or day, considering that I go to bed in the morning
I’ve done the “TV instead of computer in the evening” thing and it works for me. If I want to sleep properly,I have to leave the TV on. Unfortunately, I can’t do that anymore because, well, all the channels disappeared :’(
I am doomed.
heyy.. thanks for the comment:) . I don’t know wht I can do to fix the drop down menue..?? I think i’ll just add another navimation on my side bar??.
Hmm…interesting. Maybe this is the real reason behind why I’m tired during the day.
I always use the internet before I go to bed. Usually I’m checking/sending emails, chatting on aim, or reading blogs. I’m a night owl, so if I’m not online I’m watching Court TV or something. It’s a really bad habit I hope to get out of once I’m through with college.
Hmm, well Emz has been generally cramming her Internet browsing into the hours between 10:30pm and 1am at the moment.
And it has been affecting her sleep!
If she’s been on the ‘puter then she’ll generally lie in bed (when trying to sleep) thinking about ‘puter stuff.
Last night for example, as Mari knows, DreamHost pooped itself. When Emz finally managed to post her Wednesday Weevils, she felt content to go to bed.
Then she did, but all she could think about was whether DreamHost was still pooping itself, and if the post was up correctly yada yada.
She even got out of bed especially just to spell check the post because she thought that bits of poop might have gotten inbetween her words!
GAH!
So yes, Internet browsing at night makes Emz stay awake longer, and sleep in later the next morning.
(Emz promises to comment on the posts she’s missed - but has to rush to work in a minute, so can’t do so now).
@Kecia
See, you just never noticed it.
@Becca
But you could change it if you wanted to, right? You’re not one of those internet addicts are you? XDDDDD
@Kaisa
Maybe watch VHS tapes or DVDs? That’s what Mari does since she doesn’t have a satellite connection in her room. Either that or Mari watches with her Dad, who always watches boring stuff before bed.
@Anusha
You know, Mari tries not to use her comments as a guestbook…
But, yeah, you should just add a normal navigation on your sidebar.
@Kiera
TV isn’t as bad, Mari thinks, because TV can make people sleepy. Mari falls asleep watching TV a lot.
The Internet is interactive, so it’s a lot worse than TV. It forces you to do work so you can play on it.
@Emz
Mari does that too most times. Mari’s trying to quit, though!
It’s okay, Emz. Take a break. You’re way too nice already. =)
1. I never remembered to thank you for your askimet suggestion. I am now using it and I think I have less frustrated commenters now.
2. That is very interesting. I noticed even if I go to bed early I am still tired. Thank you for sharing that.
Besides, I sometimes can’t get off and end up being on it hours.
@Laura
That’s awesome! Yay, Laura!
Yeah, it is an interesting tidbit.
Well that actually explains a lot really. I guess I’ll just have to make sure that I don’t use the computer right before going to bed from now on.
@Joana
It’s so hard to do, though. Mari was on till 2 am last night because she totally lost track of what she was doing.
Wow I use the computer every night before I go to bed. This must be the reason why I have sleeping problems. It has to be the computer, everyone else(those who commented)who spend their time on the computer seem to have the same problems.
@Christina
It’s apparently a very common problem.
[...] and Mari realizes it’s been a while since she’s done one. Well, actually, Mari did Are Your Browsing Habits Affecting Your Sleep, but Mari’s been doing way too many essays/opinion articles recently. Mari needs to post a [...]
Wow Mari, that’s one important article for us all to read. I’m like you with the computer owning me. I am on the computer in the morning, during the day at work, and at night before I go to sleep. Plus there’s the dinner time TV watching. It’s no wonder I feel so darn tired all the time. Thanks for pointing this article out.
@Julie
Yeah. The other week Mari stayed away from the computer, and it really helped Mari sleep better. Honestly,most people wouldn’t think about it unless we read about it, and it’s very important to think about how our use of the Internet affects us.
Just as a note, this was from August. Mari was recategorizing posts from August (Mari had deleted categories back in July, and everything was Uncategorized), and the Subscribe 2 plugin started sending out notifications for the updated posts.