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Text messaging On Mobile Phones Affecting Quality Of Sleep

A recent study revealed that text messages on mobile phones are making an impact on the quality of sleep for almost 50% of the 16 year old people. According to a report, the sleep of 25% of 13 year old youngsters can also be affected.

The Leuven study on media and adolescent health was conducted in Flanders in which about 2500 children studying in 1st and 4th year - aged 13 and 16 years were asked how many times they wake in the night because of incoming SMS messages in their mobile phones. In the 13 year old children, 13.4% reported that they wake up 1-3 times in a month, 5.8% wake up one in a week, 5.3% wake up many times in a week and 2.2% wake up every night. In the group of 16 year old children, 20.8% wake up 1-3 times in a month, 10.8% wake up at least one time in a week, 8.9% wake up many times in a week and 2.9% wake up every night.

The children were also asked to tell how tired they feel at different times. These findings suggest that the mobile phones are having a great effect on the quality of sleep of increasing number of adolescents. The threat of not having quality sleep is more important than the threat caused by entertainment media. The entertainment media influences a person’s time to go to bed while mobile phones actually lead to disturbed sleeping patterns.

Studies have been conducted to look into the effects of computers and televisions in the bedrooms on sleeping patterns of children, but little works are done on the effects of mobile phones, particularly when they are used for text messaging.

There are little but growing bodies of research that aim at looking into the effects of mass media on the sleeping patterns of youngsters. Nightmares and lack of sleep are always linked to viewing televisions.