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High Speed Internet Is Causing Widespread Sleep Deprivation, Study Finds (vice.com)
A study, published Friday in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and funded by the European Research Council, suggests that high speed internet access is causing people to lose up to 25 minutes of sleep per night compared to those without high speed internet. From a report: It's the first study to causally link broadband access to sleep deprivation. The so-called "digitalization of the bedroom," defined by our inability to part with our phones/laptops/televisions before bed, has already been linked to various sleep disorders. [...] As the researchers found, high speed internet access "promotes excessive electronic media use," which has already been shown to have detrimental effects on sleep duration and quality. The effects of high speed internet access were particularly noticeable in younger age demographics.
I have had high speed internet since almost 1999 and I can personally say that every place that I have it and have my computer or hand held device attached to it I will not go to bed before 2 AM. But when I don't have access to that and have to read a book, or actually do chores I find myself getting ready for bed by 11 or so.
Also there is of course the simple fact that we almost always wake up and reach for the phone or computer before we even go for the coffee anymore. Kinda sad.
The voices in my head don't like you
Maybe not high speed in today's terms, but the internet time warp isnt new and many people have had measured losses in sleep simply being online all night.
This still must pale in comparison to the loss of sleep due to the advent of television.
Better known as 318230.
The effects of high speed internet access were particularly noticeable in younger age demographics.
Interestingly, researchers noticed practically no impact on sleep at all for the 125-150 year age demographic.
I just thought of something as I read this headline. Facebook's color is blue, and blue light keeps you awake. Coincidence?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Somehow, I cannot get excited or upset that people with high-speed internet are losing sleep as a result....
Any more than it bothers me that many people in the USA have to make up their minds which car to use on any given day....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
and this was in dial up days.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
...but I need to get in one more game of Overwatch before I go to bed.
The UDH pr0n
Gigidi
In 60 years we have pretty much destroyed our natural sleep habits. Kevin Rose had a really good podcast with Kevin Walker about sleep and the dangers of losing it.
Don't give Ajit Pai any more ideas. He'll use this study as an excuse to set the broadband speed in the U.S. back to DSL levels.
By forcing slower speeds on people, they'll be less willing to stay up because of the frustration of waiting for pages to download.
I remember starting downloads and going to sleep because it would take hours before a couple hundred MB file would finish.
High speed internet isn't "causing sleep deprivation". High speed internet doesn't force people to stay away or pour cold water on them in the middle of the night.
It is the choice of people to use high speed internet late at night is that causes sleep deprivation.
I am sure the biggest cause of sleep deorpvation is work
longer work hours due to a tight labor market is what's killing sleep. Folks need time for their brains to spin down and the internet does that as well as anything else. Put a tablet in blue light mode and you don't even have eye problems. The trouble is we're putting in 10+ hour days with 1 hour commutes and then spending 4 hours helping our kids with the piles of homework they get and maybe have 1 or 2 hours to ourselves if we're lucky. That's not enough time to spin down.
People are about twice as productive as they were 60 years ago. That's not all chalked up to machines & computers. A lot of that is just plain less downtime all around. Hell, computers make it possible to track and eliminate your downtime. Look at Amazon. They have pedometers on their employees. I knew a buddy of mine that got a cushy job going around satellite TV users homes to check if they were pirating the signal (lots were and didn't know it because some random guy from the "cable company" would sell them a card). His job was to make them go legit and maybe show them how to order pay-per-view. Computers showed the company how much revenue the company made off the scheme and it was less than the employees cost. He was fired soon after. Or take Sega of America. They stopped advertising in print magazines years ago because data analytics showed it wasn't worth it. Good for Sega but not for all the video game mags that closed shop.
We're all working way, way too hard. That's what's costing us sleep. Not the crap we do at night to try and settle down enough to sleep.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
By TFA standards, DSL is high speed internet. It is not about fiber or anything like that. (I didn't read the full paper though, I didn't bother getting through the paywall)
Basically, with very few exceptions, if you have internet at home, it is high speed internet.
I don't have any tech devices in my bedroom active when I go to bed. No TV in the room, devices on do not disturb and I sleep perfectly fine. I do think many people become addicted to their technology and this can be unhealthy I suppose. Its probably more the devices then high speed internet that is to blame. I do know people who say they wake up several times a night to check for messages. probably from someone else who doesn't sleep either.
I have my own redshift-like script, that fades both my room's lights and all my screen lights and colors like the sunset and then like a bonfire, until all that is left is glowing coal.
I *automatically* get tired. No need to do anything special.
OK, maybe one thing: ALL forms of communication are faded down too. First, news and "social" media sites. Then instant messengers, and finally, my phone goes to mute, my PC shuts down (although I currently have disabed that), and all lights are off.
The only situation where I can't get sleepy with this, is when I had too much caffeine. (That includes chocolate too!!)
The only caveat is, that if your addiction to that shit is stronger than your protection from turning a light on anyway, you will of course fail.
When, are we going to lean toward the idea that we are responsible for ourselves rather than trying to blame something, someone, etc for everything that we do or every problem that we encounter? At some point we have to show personal responsibility and say maybe it isn't this thing that causes the problem, maybe it's what I choose to do with it or how I choose to use it. Sure, if you eat 10 cheeseburgers you get fat, but if you eat one or two, no so much .... and just like that, you have the capacity to turn off your internet connected devices.
I have a great news: electricity caused more sleep deprivation than broadband does. And mastering fire had a huge impact, too.
Quality of comments on Slashdot shows either sleep deprivation - or drinking-while-trolling?
Gently reply
Doctor: "Bob, you are not getting enough sleep. I'm giving you a prescription for Comcast."
Table-ized A.I.
I think it might be the opposite. People who have internet access, but not 'highspeed' access spend more time doing the same tasks. I find that the more reading material, be it kindle based or analog paper based, I have contributes to less sleep than anything else. Just one more chapter...I find also working for an east coast based company, their idiotic insistence at an 08:00 start time, when the user base I support are all 3 hour offset costs me a buttload of time as well.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
It's my regular job and the hours I am putting in - no time for anything else that is.....
I've got one confession
I love deprivation
Clearly this is what the song is about.
That is why banks love it.
Unless they want to be "exciting" banks for gamblers. Then the color is yellow.
AT&T and Verizon are attempting to save you all from sleep deprivation by selling slow speed ADSL plans for the same price as fibre!
I pulled quite a few all-nighters with my computer when I was a teenager, before I even had dial-up Internet.
Of course a lot of time was spent on dial-up BBS:es, not to mention the telephone bills ...
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
...as in.. I'd turn the last page in the book after being up all night reading it, seeing the first rays of light from the sun, and going "...oh...shit... did it again."
Christine. Firestarter. How Much For Just The Planet. The Final Nexus. Rage. Roadwork. Just a small list of books that did this to me. And these were on paper, not some as-of-then-not-yet-invented mobile device.
If it wasn't a book hangover, then it was a video hangover. TAPS playing HBO at 2:30? Yea, i'd be watching it, with school next day.. drag my ass into the classroom looking like x.x or @.@ or -.-
It has nothing to do with the 'net. It has to do with not having the discipline to PUT IT DOWN.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
I find I lose sleep more from slower/erratic/exorbitantly expensive internet connections than any other quality thereof.
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
People with sleep deprivation because of the digitization of the bedroom have only themselves to blame. You can choose not to use your tablet or phone just before you go to sleep.
-- Cheers!
This high speed internet is keeping me awake a lot of nights. And if the âinternet â is not working I have even more work...
Off to work now as my Saturday night shift starts (do not ask where).
I go to bed and leave the net behind. I run a third party router OS My son also goes to bed at a reasonable time due to the scheduling on all of his devices. Now I only get sleep depravation when there is an outage which I'm happy to say are fewer than ever thanks to multiple routes and better load balancing.
The android on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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