Sleep cycle disruption by social media

IT is 12 midnight; seems just too early to sleep. All the friends are online; need to scroll some more to make sure not missing out on anything interesting updated by the friends.
1.30 am; will go to bed after half an hour. Before that, all the unanswered messages in chat-box need to be replied to.
3 am; oh didn't even notice, it's too late, should sleep now. But wait, one final go through is needed for all the notifications, right? Must comment on some posts too. After a while, Fazar Azan breaks the concentration once again and the 'sincere' Facebook user realises it's already morning while s/he has class to attend at 9 am.
Going to bed late at night has become a very common affair for the youth of Bangladesh, also globally. Especially in the time of this global pandemic, the sleep cycle of most of the youth have been heavily disrupted. Sleeping at the last hour of night, waking up in the morning early for other work and then remaining lethargic filled with drowsiness all day long is something that every youth is used to. While the reason behind it varies from person to person, it is mostly due to social media. And a few days practice of such routine destroys the natural sleep cycle automatically. After some time, it becomes really hard to retain a healthy sleep cycle again.
Since internet has become easier to access, people, especially the youth have become more regular at using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, etc. Apart from texting and sharing posts and pictures, these platforms nowadays provide many other things that keep the youth glued. As there are daily life works by the day, most users make time for social media by sacrificing their sleep at night.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2018, in which nearly 750 participants of 13 to 17-year old youths took part. It was found that 45 per cent of them are online constantly while 97 per cent use a social media platform. This shows the influence of social media. With the educational institutions were shut down due to pandemic, the late night usage has drastically increased as there is not much of a routine to maintain.
Dr Holly Scott from the School of Psychology at Glasgow University once said that social media has appeared to be a 'powerful competitor for sleep,' after conducting research, as the young users have a tendency to catch anything new on social media. "Teenagers may be lying awake because they are not ready to fall asleep and then struggling to disengage from social media because they don't want to miss out," she added.
However, there are quite some benefits of using social media as well. In addition to entertainment value, social media can also expose people to new ideas and current events, promote participation in communities, help collaborate with others on projects and assignments, facilitate connections with long-distance family and friends, and enhance access to social networks. Also, one can be up to date with affairs all over the world and express their opinions and concerns.
Nevertheless, disrupting the sleep cycle by using social media can have serious health-related consequences. The sleep-related outcomes of using these social media at night are manifolds. Along with the number of hours slept at night getting shorter, the sleep quality also gets poorer. Late night usage also affects negatively by promoting cognitive, emotional and physical arousal. Along with that, risks of occasional sickness, skin problems, gaining weight, inability to think clearly, forgetting stuff, etc. increases. Even the likes of diabetes and cancer are in the list.
Chair of the child and adolescent faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists UK, Dr Bernadka Dubicka opined, "Depressed young people might increasingly turn to social media late into the night." According to her, doctors should always ask their young patients about social media usage when discussing sleep and mental health issues.
Dr Max Davie, from the UK Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, on the other hand, recommended users to stay off all screens for at least an hour before bed so their brains have time to wind down. "Lack of sleep can have a significant negative impact not only on the young users' physical wellbeing, but also on their relationships with family and friends and in terms of reaching their full potential at school."
Therefore, disruption of the sleep cycle among the youth has to be considered as a national concern. It is, hence, imperative to raise awareness about consequences of sleep cycle disruption and encourage them for a healthy lifestyle.

The writer is a BSS third year student at Dhaka University. He can be reached at [email protected]