High-speed internet access causes sleep deprivation, study finds

Where internet access has made lives easier, it has also created a lot of problems with one of them being sleep deprivation, as found by a recent study.

A new study funded by European Research Council claimed that there is a link between broadband high-speed internet access and sleep deprivation. Researchers assert that usage of different internet-connected devices costs those with high-speed internet up to 25 minutes of sleep per night with unsatisfied sleep, as compared to those without it.

“Internet addiction and technology use near bedtime are often blamed as a major cause of the sleep deprivation epidemic,” one of the researchers Luca Stella told Digital Trends. “Yet the empirical evidence on this relationship is still limited.”

Research shows using smartphones before bedtime decreases happiness

She continued, “In our study, we first show descriptive evidence that the use of digital devices at night is correlated with shorter sleep duration. Then, exploiting differences in the access to high-speed internet caused by the pre-existing telephone infrastructure in Germany, we analyze the relationship between high-speed internet and sleep. We find that access to broadband internet reduces sleep duration and sleep satisfaction.”

Stella informed that the overall results were as per their earlier assumptions that using high-speed internet might increase the use of digital devices at bedtime, delaying it and resulting in ‘short and worse sleep’, read the study published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

Also, what surprised researchers more was that the correlation between short sleep and smartphone usage was found highest among 30 to 59 years old people, rather than those under 30. As per Stella, the most probable explanation to this can be that individuals over 30 have more work and family constraints in the morning, and they might ‘not be able to compensate for a later bedtime’.

“High-speed Internet makes it very enticing to stay up later to play video games, surf the web and spend time online on social medias,” the researchers concluded. “Given the growing awareness of the importance of sleep quantity and quality for our health and productivity, providing more information on the risks associated with technology use in the evening may promote healthier sleep and have non-negligible effects on individual welfare and well-being.”