Science Says: Teens Spending Long Hours Online At Night Are Prone To Depression

February 8, 2015

It isn’t unknown that most teens these days are active users of smartphones, tablets, and many other electronic devices. However, if they spend long hours online, especially at night, they could be more prone to depression, a study reveals.

Published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, it says that the prolonged use of digital media among teenagers increases the risk of sleep problems and points to the obvious symptoms of depression. The study was conducted by the University of Basel and examined the difference in the use of digital media between teenagers with smartphones. and those with simpler mobile phones (without any internet connectivity). Teens with smartphones spent double the amount of time on the internet, as compared to their peers. Everyday, they wrote an average 85 messages compared to just seven messages sent by their peers using simple phones. Consequently, the first group of teens got bad quality of sleep at night. Only 17 percent of them switched their devices off or put them on silent during the night.

Further to these findings, experts suggested that teens with smartphones were hit by a severe lack of sleep and an increased amount of social media anxiety. Thus, they were more prone to depression and daytime tiredness.

Source: ANI News