Sleep Debt in Student Life

Abstract

The amount of sleep college students receive has become a pressing societal concern. While studies show that information technology (IT) use affects sleep, here we examine the converse: how sleep duration might affect IT use. We conducted an in situ study, and logged computer and phone use and collected sleep diaries and daily surveys of 76 college students for seven days, all waking hours. We examined effects of sleep duration and sleep debt. Our results show that with less sleep, people report higher perceived work pressure and productivity. Also, computer focus duration is significantly shorter suggesting higher multitasking. The more sleep debt, the more Facebook use and the higher the negative mood. With less sleep, people may seek out activities requiring less attentional resources such as social media use. Our results have theoretical implications for multitasking: physiological and cognitive reasons could explain more computer activity switches: related to less sleep.

Media multitasking and sleep problems: A longitudinal study among adolescents

“…Consistent with previous cross-sectional studies that demonstrated that media multitasking was associated with sleep problems (e.g., Calamaro et al, 2009;Mark et al, 2016), our findings showed a near to medium positive relationship between media multitasking and sleep problems in each of the three waves. Adolescents who engaged in higher levels of media multitasking reported more sleep problems.…”

“…Subsequently, these deficits in executive functions may lead to an increase in media multitasking (e.g., Baumgartner et al, 2014;Yang & Zhu, 2015). In line with this, Mark et al (2016) found that adolescents who experienced more sleep problems reported more media multitasking the next day. These findings suggest that sleep problems have a proximal effect on media multitasking, but that this effect may not be visible anymore three-to-four months later.…”

“…The considerable increase in media multitasking in recent decades has raised concerns regarding the possible negative impact of media multitasking on sleep problems. Although cross-sectional studies demonstrated that media multitasking is related to sleep problems (e.g., Calamaro et al, 2009;Mark et al, 2016), evidence for the direction of this relationship has been lacking. Such evidence is pivotal because media multitasking could be conceptualized as both a cause and a consequence of sleep problems.…”

“…As studies have only examined the cross-sectional relationship between media multitasking and sleep problems (Calamaro et al, 2009;Mark et al, 2016;Pea et al, 2012), empirical evidence for a reciprocal relationship between media multitasking and sleep problems is lacking. However, several longitudinal studies on the relationship between screen-based media use and sleep problems have investigated reciprocal relationships, albeit with mixed results (e.g., Becker, Langberg, & Byars, 2015).…”

“…However, only three studies have examined the relationship between media multitasking and sleep problems. These studies showed that media multitasking was related to shortened sleep (Calamaro et al, 2009;Mark, Wang, Niiya, & Reich, 2016;Pea et al, 2012), more difficulties in falling asleep, and daytime sleepiness (Calamaro et al, 2009).…”