Posted 3. April 2009, 12:01 by Amy Wallett comments (3)
Category : Home   Learning & teaching developments

Of late, I seem to eat food at my desk, listen to music on my computer, do uni work, comment on blogs on CEMP, browse the forum, play online games, interact socially, do more uni work, browse Facebook and Tweet well in to the wee hours of the morning. It makes me wonder, apart from developing some sort of online addiction, am I and are others slowly but surely becoming insomniacs, and could internet usage habits be partly to blame?

The definition of insomnia as given by the Oxford English Dictionary is the ‘condition of being unable to sleep’. Commonly identified causes of insomnia include caffeine, medication, fear, anxiety, stress, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, shift work and jet lag. Ok, so as a final year uni student I am currently experiencing say… at least 5 of those… but more to the point, recently scholars have begun to question whether media use, such as electronic media, might also play a part in the onset of the sleeping disorder.

A research article published in 2007 by Nakamori Suganuma titled ‘Using electronic media before sleep can curtail sleep time and result in self-perceived insufficient sleep’ revealed connections between media use and sleep loss.

The research states a known fact that, ‘the use of media such as television and the internet has become widespread’. In Japan, where the surveys were conducted, it was found that 60.2% of Japanese people access the Internet between 20:00 and 00:00hrs and 47.5% watch television at 23:00hrs.

Suganuma’s research concluded that ‘high levels of self-perceived insufficient sleep ascribed to media use were found’. Nearly half of the respondents associated their lack of sleep with electronic media use before bedtime and those who used electronic media for longer periods of time were also more likely to report insufficient sleep. The research also suggested that medical professionals who deal with non-pharmacological treatment of insomnia should consider media use before sleeping as a contributing factor to the onset of the disorder.

Stephanie Quilao, a ‘Pro Blogger’ as she refers to herself, wrote about her onset insomnia and questioned whether it might be attributable to the amount of time she spends online. Listing her activity as a ‘Pro Blogger’ she noted such routines as writing an average of five to six blog posts per day of around 200 to 500 words five days a week, visiting other blogs and commenting, reading her 100 active RSS feeds, researching for stories, testing applications and features for her blog, socialising on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, Flickr etc, managing emails, producing podcasts and more.

So, could my internet usage be to blame for my insomnia-like behaviour?

As a night owl by nature, I personally cannot seem to sleep before midnight regardless. Even when working full-time, I never seemed to have enough hours to fit everything in to my day before 12:00am, and thus would not go to sleep until 1:00 or 2:00am. My thoughts now however are, with the rise of social media as a valuable communication tool, socially and professionally, are people with similar sleeping habits to me just going to get worse? Social media can take up many hours from your day, what if we can’t fit it all in!

I know I am talking as if control over using the internet and social media is out of our hands – so perhaps, for the first time in a long time; I should take charge and turn my laptop off before 4:00am? What’s stopping me…? Ready… turning off now… but before I go, maybe I’ll just check my emails and see how my Google Analytics is doing, oh and I haven’t had chance to go on Facebook today, maybe I should see what’s been happening there… and whilst I’m at it… one more Tweet won’t hurt will it…

Sources:

Wikipedia: Insomnia entry

Stephanie Quilao, ‘Pro Blogger’

Suganuma, N., et al., 2007. Using electronic media before sleep can curtail sleep time and result in self-perceived insufficient sleep. Sleep and Biological Rythms. Available here: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118498684/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0. [Accessed March 09].