Common mistake in the hour before bed can keep you up for HOURS, scientists warn
POSTING on social media before bed can keep you up for hours, according to research.
Putting something up an hour before bedtime cut people’s sleep by up to three hours, a study found.
Researchers tracked more than 51,000 Reddit users’ posts from 2005 to 2021 to see how the time they posted impacted how long they stayed on the site.
Dr William Meyerson, of Duke University, said: “This could be the result of several factors — from screen lights disrupting the circadian rhythm, to the anticipation of a response.
“Reddit users are more likely to stay up past their bedtime and post on nights when they posted an hour before bedtime, especially if they were active on high-engagement forums.”
More than 57million Brits use social media, according to latest statistics — 84 per cent of the population.
Nearly 1million use Reddit, a social news site and forum where users rate each others posts and respond in “subreddits” about particular subjects they’re interested in.
Using social media immediately for bed has become an increasingly common routine, with Brits scrolling their phones while in bed.
But researchers have raised concerns that staring at the blue light of the screen prevents the body’s natural sleep cycle from kicking in, blocking the hormones that make us drowsy.
The latest study, published in Sleep Medicine, tracked Reddit users post times and estimated bedtimes to see how using the site late at night affected their sleep.
They analysed more than 236million posts over the 16 years, measuring how many were made after a user’s bedtime.
users were more likely to remain on Reddit one to three hours after their bedtimes on nights when their last pre-bedtime post was within an hour of their bedtime.
Users who posted multiple times in the hour before bedtime were substantially more likely to stay up after their bedtimes.