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TEENAGERS’ LATE-NIGHT mobile phone use is harming their mental health and sleeping patterns, according to a new study.
The study of 1,100 students aged 13 to 16 in Australia found that late-night mobile phone use was directly linked to poor sleep quality, which led to poorer mental health outcomes, reduced coping and lowered self-esteem.
Lead researcher Lynette Vernon, of Murdoch University in Perth, said the findings showed a need for curfews around the use of mobile phones in bedrooms.
Sleep habits should also be taught to students during secondary school years, she said.
The researchers looked at teenagers’ mobile phone habits over the course of four years.
Students were asked what time of the night they received or sent text messages and phone calls, and about their perceptions of their sleep quality.
The results showed that 85% of students in their first year of high school (aged around 13) owned a mobile phone. Around one-third of these students reported they never texted or received phone calls after lights out.
However, three years later 93% of the students owned mobiles and only 22% of these students reported no late-night mobile phone use.
Researchers found that the teenagers who start out as relatively ‘healthy’ in terms of their late-night mobile phone use early in high school, tend to show steeper escalation in their late-night mobile phone use over the coming years.
“This means that even when teens appear to have their technology and sleep under control early on, they still require monitoring and education as they mature,” co-author Kathryn Modecki said.
As the students’ levels of mobile phone use grew over time, so did their poor sleep behaviour, with a rise in depressed mood and a decline in self-esteem evident.
“Heavy mobile phone use becomes a problem when it overtakes essential aspects of adolescent life. In this case, we see issues when it overtakes time set-aside for sleep,” Vernon said.
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Is the Climate Change Advisory Council independent? Who elected theses ‘experts’?
If we can’t tackle cronyism, favouritism and nepotism. It’s what fuelling distrust of our political system. Are those you gain from political strokes the best ‘experts’ to offer advice?
@leartius: Independent from what? Surely not rom ideology. Independent means not responsible to anyone. I do demand any authority to be answerable to democratic process.
@leartius: back to the drawing board I’d say…..
More taxes will fix it
People want to work from home. Let them. It cuts down so much on commuter hours.thats where they should start. Then fix rural public transport for people who can’t work from home.
How many more opinion pieces about climate change are you going to publish?? Mainstream media here in Ireland needs to cool the jets. Even the advertisements are at it now.
We know climate change is an issue, we get it, we are doing all we can but nothing can change until the big corporations, governments and powerful nations like USA and China do something.
All these opinion pieces are targeted for the same people over and over again, it will result in climate fatigue. The average Joe just won’t care anymore. Anytime I switch on Sky or RTE or open the journal we are bombarded with it.
It’s just turning into one big cliche.
How many times can someone talk about the issue without saying what’s already been said before?
@Darren Anthony Corr: to be honest the quality of journalism is quite poor. merely emotional sound bites without logic or even a vision of a plan that might actually work. quoting young people all the time who dont really understand the issues involved. msm is just full of populist nonsense these days.
We were lighting the fire pretty much every day from the end of September onwards last year. This year we’ve had to light a grand total of two fires so far, both at the end of October. I was walking around Tralee today in a t-shirt, in mid November. Just my own experience but I should have been frozen with the cold today and it was grand. Don’t really remember it being this mild so late in the year before but I don’t remember lots of things sometimes! Anyone remember anything like this recently?
Population reduction is the only way to counter the offensive ‘emmitions’ which are caused by being alive. Our politicians strive for population growth, economy growth, investment in infrastructure, building more crappy houses, larger markets, More demand for consumable stuff, all great for business, not great for environment. There should be incentives for people to elect for sterilisation, and measures put in place to shrink the population if they were serious about it. Instead it’s wind farms and electric cars.
@Eamonn O’Hanrahan: Nothing stopping your from getting sterilised of you wish.
good point. also Govt has no solutions just taxes. we have insufficient power generation f ev’s. we have insufficient surge capacity in our grid for ev’s. Ev’s wont work for tractors, hgv’s, trains or ships but hydrogen will / no plan. No plan for hydtogen fuel cell cars for those who cannot install a charging point or who criss cross the country needing fast fill up.
@Damian Moylan: “we have insufficient power generation f ev’s… but hydrogen will / no plan. No plan for hydtogen fuel cell cars”
I don’t understand how one pivots from insufficient power for EVs to – what about hydrogen, which requires about around about 3 times the electric.
It has the motorists. I mean it must be yeah? Let’s tax them even more, they are an easy target? 2m plus vehicles on the roads. Sure it makes sense? Let’s invent new levies and new taxes because that’ll solve the problem. It’s not agriculture or other sectors nope, couldn’t be.
develop hydrogen infrastructure.
https://youtu.be/4sn0ecqZgog
We’ll have to go back to turning off the immersion
Big break through in cop-on26 Ireland is been shut down The world is saved China and the US are giving us badges for our sacrifice
We does Ireland go from here?
Subsidise materials like insulation for retro fitting so people can DIY, cut down on beaurcracy.
Stop building on low levels near the sea and rivers.
Become more food secure, diversify farming, subsidise smaller farms and organic/chemical free
Planning exemptions for buildings made with natural materials/composting loos etc.
Make rainwater harvesting mandatory in all new builds
Fuel rationing for cars, even out the rural v urban obstacle.
Limit on outdoor lighting on private dwellings.
Limit on no. Properties unless landlord.
Tax on airline travel.
@Anarch Eco: do what Colm Molloy said
@Anarch Eco: taxing air travel isnt the answer to that industry and its emmitance. The rich will continue to travel as much as always and the poor still will want to get their one sunshine holiday a year, only it will cost them more and hurt their home finances. Ireland is an island with miserable summers and you can’t bank on a decent week in August. Taxing things like this only serve to widen the gap in the haves and haven’ts.
@Jeff Cole: oh theres wealth taxes in there too.
Plenty of years with good weather in may/June/july, august should be cancelled.
Studying up on the current planetary pole shift would be an excellent start
It’s to dam cowld anyway I wouldn’t mind a bit of global warming coming into a the freezing winter
have your say