Interviewed expert: Mei Junhua, deputy chief physician of the Department of Neurology of Wuhan First Hospital and head of the Sleep Medicine Center
Global Times health client reporter Zhang Jian
As we all know, playing mobile phones before going to bed can easily lead to insomnia, late sleep and other problems. Studies have found that blue light emitted by mobile phones and tablets can interfere with the production of melatonin and affect sleep. Recently, scientists from Duke University and Yale University in the United States published a new study in the journal Sleep Medicine found a causal relationship between social media before bed and sleep delay. That is, people who post social media posting behaviors such as posting moments before going to bed are prone to staying up late.
To further clarify whether social media posts interfere with people's normal sleep patterns, especially at night. The researchers conducted an exhaustive analysis of the data on the social media site Reddit. Like other social media sites, users on Reddit can leave comments or links to content and comment on content posted by others. The research team analyzed 120 million posts made by 44,000 users on these social media over 15 years. These are veteran users of the social media and are able to analyze their bedtime through data analysis, which in turn analyzes the impact of social media posts on sleep time.
The researchers found that users who posted on the site about an hour before bed were more likely to experience late-night behavior — going to bed later than the normal bedtime. After a user finishes posting, the brain stays awake, usually until 1 to 3 hours after normal bedtime. If users post multiple times before bed, they may stay up late into the night. Researchers analyzed that after users post, they expected other users on social platforms to respond quickly, which in turn led to an increase in dopamine levels, which made it difficult to relax and fall asleep. Previous studies have also shown that elevated dopamine levels contribute to mental activity and alertness, both of which are detrimental to falling asleep.
Mei Junhua, deputy chief physician of the Department of Neurology of Wuhan First Hospital and head of the Sleep Medicine Center, told the Global Times Health Client reporter that this is a very meaningful study and very suitable for our current situation. According to the "China Sleep Research Report 2022", in the past 10 years, the average sleep duration of Chinese people has shrunk from 8.5 hours in 2012 to 7.06 hours in 2021, falling asleep more than two hours late, waking up 37 minutes later, and sleeping time reduced by nearly 1.5 hours. The report also shows that the number one factor affecting sleep duration is sleep delay caused by looking at your phone or surfing the Internet. The above studies show that in addition to playing with mobile phones, sending moments and Weibo can also lead to sleep delay. Because after individuals post on social media, they will unconsciously pay attention to whether anyone likes and comments, which will put the brain in a state of over-alertness and excitement.
Mei Junhua said that at present, there are two groups of people whose sleep is more commonly affected by mobile phones. One category is teenagers. The "2019 China Adolescent Sleep Index White Paper" released by the Chinese Sleep Research Association clearly pointed out that electronic devices such as mobile phones and tablets are the second largest factor that causes adolescent children to be deprived of sleep time. The other category is the elderly. With the wide application of electronic products, more and more elderly people have become "mobile phone control", and clinically it is often seen that many elderly people's sleep is affected by mobile phones.
Many studies have confirmed the impact of playing mobile phones before going to bed on sleep, and if you want to have a good night's sleep, experts recommend doing 3 points:
1. Put your phone down at least half an hour before bedtime.
2. Try to post moments and Weibo during the day, and do not post before going to bed to reduce pressure before going to bed.
3. Skip videos, play games, and browse the news for a while before going to bed, and it is recommended to listen to light music and read paper books instead. ▲
Editor: Xu Menglian
Editor-in-chief: Tu Limei