Sleep In America Poll: Technology Is Ruining Our Sleep

Your laptop may rob you of much-needed rest, according to a new study conducted by the National Sleep Foundation. The non-profit's 2011 Sleep in America poll suggests a correlation between the use of electronics before bedtime and widespread sleeping problems.

The poll surveyed a random sample of 1,508 Americans between the ages of 13 and 64. A whopping 63 percent of participants claimed that their sleep needs were not met during the week. This dissatisfaction may be connected to the fact that virtually everyone polled -- 95 percent -- reported that they surfed the net, texted or watched TV at least a few nights a week in the hour before trying to sleep.

"Technology has invaded the bedroom," announced study task force member Charles Czeisler, Ph.D., M.D., in an interview with Reuters. "Invasion of such alerting technologies into the bedroom may contribute to the high proportion of respondents who reported they routinely get less sleep than they need." Czeisler further explained this phenomenon in the National Sleep Foundation's press release:

Artificial light exposure between dusk and the time we go to bed at night suppresses release of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin, enhances alertness and shifts circadian rhythms to a later hour, making it more difficult to fall asleep ... This study reveals that light-emitting screens are in heavy use within the pivotal hour before sleep. Invasion of such alerting technologies into the bedroom may contribute to the high proportion of respondents who reported that they routinely get less sleep than they need.

Participants cited drinking caffeine and napping as methods to combat insufficient sleep, but many acknowledged that sleepiness still negatively affects their work responsibilities, family life, mood and social life.

"While these technologies are commonplace," said David Cloud, C.E.O. of the National Sleep Foundation, "it is clear that we have a lot more to learn about the appropriate use and design of this technology to complement good sleep habits."

Comments

[racoonskin]

10:14 AM on 03/09/2011

The gadget that keeps me awake is my cellphone. It seems to rack up all sorts of charges while I am not looking. Or is it the gnomes at work. When you have a cellphone contract, they add whatever charges they like in the middle of the night.

[whyus]

02:17 AM on 03/09/2011

You're right. Good night.

[eri 68]

06:56 PM on 03/08/2011

I'm a terrible sleeper and while I agree there are many distractions that have been around long before TV, computers, clock radios, etc; I did remove everything from my bedroom (including the alarm clock) and within a few months found my own internal clock was waking me up on time each morning.

I try to cut out internet surfing, TV watching and harsh lights (while reading) within an hour of bedtime but I mostly fail. I do however feel much better if I turn things off by 9 and go to bed no later than 10, now if only I could do that with consistency. lol

[Roxee]

01:17 PM on 03/08/2011

Just as I Suspected. I'm addicted to my iPad, and Huff Post. Help me please.

[ttaz4dqm]

10:40 AM on 03/08/2011

Oh yeah, that new trend of watching TV within an hour of sleeping...

[eri 68]

06:56 PM on 03/08/2011

lol

[mlambush]

10:47 PM on 03/07/2011

I love when I see a Facebook status that says: "I can't fall asleep!" I'm going to comment with a link to this article from now on.

[btdenver]

10:28 PM on 03/07/2011

Except that I had trouble sleeping long before there were home computers.

Wait, do books count as technology?

[Kristin Talbott]

02:12 PM on 03/08/2011

No, but the electric lights that provide the illumination to read the books when you should be sleeping instead do.

Not to mention all of the light that bleeds into your bedroom all night long.

Technology's impact on sleep far pre-dates the type of stuff they're mentioning here.

[GEM-592]

08:18 PM on 03/07/2011

I can tell she's not really asleep

[bestealth]

08:53 PM on 03/07/2011

Good one.

[Janette Logan]

08:11 PM on 03/07/2011

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[John Crane]

08:11 PM on 03/07/2011

I have several rooms in my house that are bristling with technology. Then, there are the tech-free zones: the bedroom, the dining room, and the formal living room. No TV, no Internet, no computer. I feel guilty having a phone and a clock radio in the bedroom, but that is the limit on technology. The bedroom is only for light reading and for sleeping. No daytime activities.

[Chrystal Ji Davey]

07:51 PM on 03/07/2011

Well, durr.

[StopThePlanet]

07:19 PM on 03/07/2011

I think that modern society is the problem, not electronics.  Jobs that make us feel like we have to be "ON" all the time and the fear of losing them.  Not having adequate health care which can suddenly be a death sentence if you get sick.  Things like that have more of an impact than watch TV before bed.

[msvanessa b]

08:55 PM on 03/07/2011

I agree. I'm a computer graphics grad student, and my life IS the computer. However, there reaches that fine point of understanding and realizing that my body has needs that overrule that of surfing the net. I keep Facebook open, compile renders, blog, and generally lurk. I can still manage to get at least 6-7 hours of sleep a night, and get up at 8am-9am with little to no problem.

This sounds more like an issue of lack of self control. The ethernet cable isn't attached to you, so shut it down, close the laptop, get off your Androids/Blackberrys, and go to sleep!

[Old Claudius]

06:43 PM on 03/07/2011

In just about any biography of Thomas Edison you can read his own admissions that he didn't sleep except in naps about 30 minutes long.

Unable to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time, waking up again and again in the night, with time to kill and thoughts swarming in his mind, while everyone else slept sweetly on, dreaming dreams, mumbling, talking, having a good snore. In short doing all that Edison would so much have rather been doing; been able to do...

Naturally enough the resentful Edison, bent on revenge, decided, "I'll invent a light-bulb! People who can sleep will think it a boon! They will think, 'Now I can stay up late!' They will become sleep-deprived, too!"

And so it came to pass. And after Edison, a continuing swarm of vicious anti-sleep revolutionaries. They inventted the fluorescent, the neon, the zenon, the halogen, the sodium-vapor, the Mercury-vapor, the sodium iodide, the arc-light, the movie, the TV, the LED, the TFT, the SVGT...

Today we are all light-addicts. We are sleep-deprived. We are victims of Thomas Edison. Victims of his artificial light conspiracy.

Is there anything we can do at this point? Or is our situation hopeless?

The situation is hopeless: When I went to the Dark Lord to ask His help against the artificial light that dictates our hours and lives, I found Him in his Dark Lair reading by the dim glow of his black light.

[HekmagaJuximaxx]

06:24 PM on 03/07/2011

Arriana Huffington must hate laptop computers. So today, Mrs Huffington announced a new line of laptop, designed to sit at the hip, not at your lap. "It's so uncomfortable", squealed one enthusiastic consumer after crashing his car on the turnpike. "How am I supposed to drive with that thing squeezing my muffin top?" Mrs Huffington declined to comment, saying, "You better tone that down or I will have your HuffingtonPost account suspended."

[sandiegosurf]

06:38 PM on 03/07/2011

LOL

how did that get past the mods?

IM LMAO!!!!

[Widespread Panic]

12:47 PM on 03/08/2011

OMG....hahahahaha! Hilarious!

[TBera12]

06:20 PM on 03/07/2011

I work constantly on my computer, then shut down and go to bed, where I catch up on facebook with my IPad. Since I supplement melatonin, I don't think I have a problem. Melatonin lets me sleep very well. I do occasional 16-hour shifts at my computer, but no problems as yet. I am 56. I learned about the melatonin drain around age 40 and have supplemented every since.