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.

Comments

Wouldn't surprise me

[Yhcrana]

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.

Television

[Dan East]

This still must pale in comparison to the loss of sleep due to the advent of television.