Top

Social media in the evening? You might rethink that!

February 15, 2016

A NIH-backed University of Pittsburgh study conducted on 1,788 US citizen aged between 19 and 32 revealed that sleep disturbance may be linked with social media activities.

The frequency of social media visits was directly proportional with the sleep disturbance levels, insofar that the participants who ranked the highest in time spent on social media networks doubled their risks of sleep disturbances.

The study’s lead author Jessica C. Levenson, postdoctoral researcher in Pitt’s Department of Psychiatry, talked about the first generation that grew up with social media as a unique research medium. Her colleague Brian A. Primack (senior author), spoke of a problematic cycle where sleep difficulties might stimulate social media use, which in turn would lead to increased sleep disturbances, as well as of the need for further investigations into the phenomenon.

The study itself relies on questionnaires regarding the participants’ activities on eleven renowned social media platforms, among which Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine or LinkedIn, without speculation on the relational cause between the online activities and the disruption of circadian rhythms.

However, a logical connection may be available for consideration when other separate social media and sleep disturbance studies reveal an obvious connection between the two.

The University of Michigan study on social media effects

Dr. Kent Berridge of the University of Michigan conducted in 2009 a study on social media use and its effects entitled “Dissecting components of reward: ‘liking’, ‘wanting’, and learning”.

In this study the three dissociate psychological components of reward mentioned in the title are analyzed in relation with social media and its neurobiological motivations. The purpose of the report has nothing to with sleep disturbances per se – it reveals how the same mechanisms that attract and motivate individuals when engaging in social media interactions could prove extremely useful in learning.

Strong internal incentives determine people to take action and spent hours engaging in social media activities, without the sensation of being forcibly coerced into these activities. The reason for this behavior has to do with a body-produced organic chemical and its mechanisms: dopamine.

A neurotransmitter and neuromodulator, dopamine

plays a role in many brain and body functions, and influences human emotion and behavior factors such as anticipation and motivation. The dopamine-seeking system triggers curiosity and search for information in people and keeps them motivated by offering an sensation of anticipating the reward (while actually getting the reward falls into a different category, regulated by to opoid system).

Dopamine stimulates a certain dynamic necessary for survival (seeking necessary elements from food to abstract things, eagerly anticipating events to come, finding the motivation to engage in various actions). In turn, it is stimulated by unpredictability and it is addictive for the human brain.

The study postulates that social media platforms are tailored to fit this exact mechanism, and thus determine higher dopamine levels. Dopamine centers react to novel events. And of course that’s exactly what Facebook, Twitter and other social accounts provide each time we check them again: anticipation of novelties and news and actual new findings.

Therefore, let’s remember the first fact: social media triggers higher dopamine levels.

Study: The role of dopamine in sleep regulation

A 2012 study by a team of Spanish researchers reveals how dopamine acts in the pineal gland to regulate circadian rhythms. Brain activity tunes to adapt to night and day rhythms, and in this process are involved three organic chemical: melatonin, norepinephrine and dopamine.

Norepinephrine regulates the secretion of melatonin, which triggers the sleeping state when released. Dopamine inhibits norepinephrine and dopamine receptors activate (hooking up with norepinephrine’s adrenergic receptors), in the pineal gland towards the end of the night, in order to stop the melatonin production.

Increased dopamine levels are incompatible with deep sleeping – according to this CIBERNED study entitled “Circadian-Related Heteromerization of Adrenergic and Dopamine D4 Receptors Modulates Melatonin Synthesis and Release in the Pineal Gland”.

The second fact to speculate upon would be this: dopamine plays an important role in regulating circadian rhythms, and, most importantly, intervenes in the waking up mechanism.

Sleep deprivation effects on dopamine

Since the discussions on how social media use is related to sleep disruption mentioned a cyclic process, we may only wonder what happens next when dopamine levels are higher than they should be at the unappropriated hour in the night.

Another study, entitled “Evidence That Sleep Deprivation Downregulates Dopamine D2R in Ventral Striatum” reveals the effects of sleep deprivation on the dopamine levels and further effects linked to this. This 2012 paper considers how dopamine as a neurotransmitter depends of its receptors. When overstimulated, the receptors may leave the membrane they are attached to, and thus making it less sensitive to that particular stimuli. Over-stimulating dopamine receptors would therefore lead to a general state that actually mimics dopamine deficiency.

Or, in layman terms, those who do not get a good night sleep because they are exited with social media activities will not be able to manifest the same energy, anticipation and general state of well-being as long as keep the same daily routine.

Solutions to break the sleep disturbance cycle

As we have demonstrated above, dopamine plays an important role in regulating circadian rhythms, and triggers the dynamic, wake-up state, while social media stimulates higher dopamine levels.

These point to the logical conclusion that indeed social media determines sleep disturbances. Other considerations add up in triggering the alarm on how people let this modern type of socializing affect their daily lives.

A 2016 study from Oxford University reconsiders face-to-face social experiences versus the social media experiences. The research postulates that the limitation regarding the possible number of simultaneous friends in social groups persists in the online environment. The idea of one’s circles expanding infinitely by using the social media tools meets its psychological limits, although it may well go beyond geographical boundaries. Face-to-face interaction is essential for human relationships, the study concludes.

Remembering facts like the one this Oxford study underlines (and others social media related warnings that are easy to find online) is a good point to start towards a social media detox.

Keeping things under control

is important it when it involves getting your sound sleep back, deciding to meet your friends face-to-face more often and allowing time in your life for social media use just in the right amount.

For those who cannot change their daily routine by just going cold turkey, there are recommended techniques of gradually implementing a new and improved schedule.