Television, Internet Triggers Self-Perception of Insufficient Sleep

The study found that the disparity of perceived inadequate sleep and actual sleep duration is most significant in heavy users of electronic media – especially those using the Internet.

“Of the 7000 surveyed, 83% of the respondents indicted having sleep problems, while 62% perceived having insufficient sleep. Almost half of the latter group attributed their state of insufficient sleep to media use.” says Dr. Nakamori Suganuma, lead author of the paper, “Using electronic media before sleep can curtail sleep time and result in self-perceived insufficient sleep”.

“Our results show a considerable variation between the light, medium and heavy media users. Only one-third of the light users perceived having insufficient sleep, compared to almost 40% of medium users and 54% of heavy users”, said Dr. Suganuma.

Even though heavy users more often complained of insufficient sleep than light users, and heavy users accessed media three hours longer than light users before sleep; the actual difference in their sleep duration was only less than 0.2 hours, or 12 minutes.

“I suppose media use not only affects sleep duration, but also sleep demand and sleep quality”, added Dr. Suganuma.

With such a great number of respondents putting their self-perceived lack of sleep down to their use of the media, researchers have suggested that incidences of television and Internet use must factor in the future non-pharmacological treatment of insomnia.-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.