The social network is recognized by a study as the most harmful to fall asleep

Many people scroll on their smartphone just before sleeping. This reflex alters the quality of sleep and considerably increases the risk of insomnia. Recently, a study by Sleepjunkie showed that, depending on the social network consulted and the content it offers, the nuisance is more or less significant.

According to a survey of more than 2,000 Americans, 78% of participants use their smartphone to fall asleep. Sleepjunkie wanted to get accurate data, and for that, respondents tested some of the world’s most popular apps before sleeping. Equipped with connected watches, it was possible to measure their time to fall asleep as well as the duration of paradoxical sleep (that is to say the last phase of the sleep cycle, the one during which dreams settle).

TikTok is the bad student

The palm of the worst social network to consult before sleeping goes to TikTok. Indeed, the participants would have plunged into sleep on average 1h07 after consulting the application. Moreover, they would only total 14% REM sleep, which is equivalent to half the REM sleep they need.

Sleepjunkie also shares the results for other social networks, specifying the percentage of REM sleep and the time to fall asleep.

TikTok – 14% /1 hour 07 minutes

Instagram – 15.5 % /58 minutes

Snapchat – 16 % /56 minutes

Twitter – 18 % /50 minutes

Facebook – 19.5 % /45 minutes

Pinterest – 19.5 % /38 minutes

YouTube – 19.5 % /32 minutes

WhatsApp – 21 % /34 minutes

Reddit – 21.5 % /35 minutes

Tumblr – 21.5 % /39 minutes

No electronic devices – 23% /25 minutes

The causes of this disturbed sleep

The study explains these results by the dangers of the blue light emitted by smartphones, which strongly affects the quality of sleep.

Also, TikTok is very popular because it is a social network that releases adrenaline and dopamine, which gives us a feeling of happiness. And that’s probably why many users decide to linger on it before sleeping, although they know it won’t help them drift off to sleep.