Instagram models and Snapchat gurus might want to proceed with caution. According to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, frequent social media users probably aren’t sleeping too well.
The study, which was published digitally and will appear in the April issue of the academic journal Preventative Medicine, featured a subject pool of 1,788 American adults ranging from 19 to 32 years old who were asked about their social media activity. Researchers inquired about popular social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine and LinkedIn, EurekAlert reports.
What they found was that individuals who checked their social media more frequently were three times as likely to suffer from sleep disturbance, and users who checked more often during the day were twice as likely to have troubled sleep compared to those who didn’t use it as much.
"This may indicate that frequency of social media visits is a better predictor of sleep difficulty than overall time spent on social media," said Dr. Jessica C. Levenson, lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in Pitt's Department of Psychiatry. "If this is the case, then interventions that counter obsessive 'checking' behavior may be most effective."
In others words, it might be time to put down the phone and get some shut eye.
