Texting at night affects teens' sleep, academic performance

Posted on March 7, 2016

Photo: flickr

The study, published in the Journal of Child Neurology, is the first of its kind to link nighttime instant messaging habits of American teenagers to sleep health and school performance.

Research has found that students who turned off their devices or who messaged for less than 30 minutes after lights out performed significantly better in school than those who messaged for more than 30 minutes after lights out.

Students who texted longer in the dark also slept fewer hours and were sleepier during the day than those who stopped messaging when they went to bed. Texting before lights out did not affect academic performance, the study found.

"When we turn the lights off, it should be to make a gradual transition from wakefulness to sleep," study author Xue Ming, professor of neuroscience and neurology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School says.

"If a person keeps getting text messages with alerts and light emission, that also can disrupt his circadian rhythm. Rapid Eye Movement sleep is the period during sleep most important to learning, memory consolidation and social adjustment in adolescents. When falling asleep is delayed but rising time is not, REM sleep will be cut short, which can affect learning and memory."


Category(s):Academic Issues, Sleep Disorders, Teenage Issues

Source material from Rutgers University