A brand new research found that a large number of children are waking up in the middle of the night to check their phone notifications.
De Montfort University in Leicester surveyed around 60 kids aged around 10-years-old and found that 12.5% of kids were waking themselves up to check their phones.
Apart from this, the research found that children were getting, on average, 8.7 hours of sleep a night. This is slightly less for the recommended 9 to 11 hours which kids their age are recommended in getting.
The ‘midnight doom scrolling’ is translating to losing around one night’s sleep every week. This adds up, the lead psychology lecturer leading the study claimed.
The researchers pointed to a sense of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) as being a prime motivator for waking up smack in the middle of sleep to check on social media. This could perpetrate heightened sense of anxiety, the researchers said.
Sleep scientists often recommend completely alienating phones from one’s sleep routine as it would hinder one from dozing off. Lack of sleep has serious consequences, and these are slightly more serious when kids are still growing and developing.
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