In this video, we’ll be looking at how the use of cell phones is being associated with Insomnia and depression.
Cell phones are a daily necessity for most of us, not only for communication, but for leisure activities such as surfing the internet, social media, gaming, watching videos, listening to music and podcasts, and many other uses.
In a report filed on the U.S. National Laboratory of Medicine website, it was shown that extensive use of cell phones was linked to both insomnia and depression.
The study was comprised of 346 students from a senior high school in Japan. The students filled out questionnaires that included questions regarding personal data, lifestyle, social support, mobile phone use, insomnia, and depression.
The study showed that long hours of mobile phone use was a risk factor for insomnia. It is also suggested that overuse of 5 hours or more per day could be a marker of a higher risk of insomnia. Depression was not associated with total hours of mobile phone use.
However, long hours spent using mobile phones for social media and online chat was related to depression.
It has been reported that using social media for more than 2 hours every day was independently associated with poor self-rating of mental health, high levels of psychological distress and suicidal ideation.
If you would like to examine the report for yourself, I have included a link to it below. Many more informative links are available in the report itself.
Report Link:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5551139/