Listen up! A recent study showed that teens who don’t get enough sleep are spending way more time on social media, and that’s not great for our brains. Researchers found that this lack of sleep messes with important parts of our brains that handle decision-making and rewards, which could change how we feel about things we enjoy. Dr. Orsolya Kiss pointed out that while we’re going through all these changes, not sleeping enough and scrolling too much could seriously affect our mental health. So, it’s super important to figure out how our screen time impacts us! Just a heads up: this was all shared at a major sleep conference recently, so it’s getting some serious attention.
Did you know that almost half of all teens in the U.S. are online like, all the time? This can be a big deal for our brains, especially since parts that deal with emotions and rewards develop faster than those that help us control ourselves and make decisions. Basically, not getting enough sleep can mess with our mental health and even take the place of super important stuff we’d do instead, like studying or just chilling. A study looked at nearly 2,000 teens and found that if you’re glued to your phone too late at night, you’re probably not getting enough z’s. Plus, the parts of your brain that help process rewards aren’t working as well when you’ve skipped sleep. Some of us end up sleeping less because of social media or sleeping a ton to make up for it. So yeah, how we vibe with social media can totally change how we feel and think!
So, it’s super important for parents and health pros to get that having friends and social connections is crucial for us teens, but we also need to understand how much sleep we actually need. Dr. Kiss pointed out that talking about how to get better sleep should be something families do regularly instead of just trying to limit our social media time. If both parents and teens know more about sleep and how to manage our online lives, it could really help keep us healthy and support our brain growth. Dr. Lakhan, a neurologist, also mentioned how too little sleep and too much scrolling can mess with our brain functions, which can hurt our thinking skills. And let’s be real, we can’t just quit social media cold turkey, right? There might even be cool tech in the future that helps us balance our screen time and sleep without being so strict about it. So, let’s get educated and find a way to enjoy our time online while still catching those Z’s!
