We all know that powering down before bed is better for sleep, but most of us are still guilty of staring at our phones prior to going to sleep. While we’d be better off putting the phone down for a few hours before we lay our heads on our pillows, there are some sites we should be staying away from pre-bedtime because they’re actually worse for us.
A new survey from Mattress Advisor of 1,000 people reveals what their phone habits are before bed and how this affects their sleep. It turns out, most people like scrolling through social media before bed, instead of playing games or reading, with 77% of respondents saying they look at apps like Instagram and Twitter as part of their normal nighttime routine.
But some apps are worse for our precious sleep.
- If you’re looking at YouTube, Pinterest, or Facebook before bed, you might want to consider a change. The survey finds folks who use those three apps before bed had lower sleep quality and lower sleep quantity, too.
- For some reason, Snapchat, Tumblr, and Instagram users slept longer, but didn’t have ideal sleep quality.
And the survey shows that some apps kept people up longer because they spend more time on them. The worst? YouTube. Only 11% of those who check out social media before bed look at YouTube, but those people spent an average of 50-plus minutes watching videos on it before bedtime. That’s almost an hour of time they could’ve been sleeping, and who can afford to lose that?
Source: Shape