Internet Addiction, Media Use, and Difficulties Associated with Sleeping in Adolescents

IntroductionMedia use including the Internet, cellular phones, and smart phones is becoming increasingly common. According the American Academy of Pediatrics, today's children are spending an average of seven hours a day on entertainment media (1). Worldwide, as of June 30, 2012 there were 2,405,518,376 Internet users (2). Asia is the largest Internet user in the world (44.8% of total world use), with Europe coming in second (21.5%) and North America coming in third (11.4%) (2). Social media is also increasingly popular. As of September 30, 2012 there was estimated to be 937,407,180 Facebook users (3). Other types of electronic device use, including cell phone use, are also considerably high. A Pew Research Report from 2012 found that 88% of US adults own a cell phone of some kind as of April 2012 and of these cell phone owners, more than half (55%) use their cell phone to go online (4). In Japan, the number as of cell phone users is similarly high. In 2009, 74.8% of the general population and 84.0% of the adolescent population (ages 13-19) own a cell phone (5).Internet addiction is a growing and newly recognized concern along with the ever-increasing consumption of electronic media. Internet addiction is based on the DSM-IV definition for substance dependence and pathological gambling (6). It is "problematic Internet use, wherein an individual's inability to control his or her use of the Internet causes marked distress and/or functional impairment" (6). Internet dependents have been found to lose sleep due to late-night logons, feel life would be boring without the Internet, and delay other work to spend time online (7). People with Internet addiction tend to spend many hours online avoiding interpersonal relationships with real and known people (8). Internet addicts may have comorbid psychiatric disorders such as higher levels of depression and suicidal ideation as well dysthymia, ADHD, OCD, social phobia, and schizophrenia (9,10).There is a growing body of evidence supporting the relationship of Internet addiction, media use, and sleep disturbance. With the number of Internet, electronic media, and cell phone users growing daily the scientific community is gaining awareness of the potential problems media use may cause in relation to sleep. Several studies have shown that the use of electronic media is associated with sleep disorders (5). It is known that media use affects children's dreams, sleep-wake transitions, and can cause overall sleep disturbances (11,12). This has the potential to greatly affect children and adolescents as they are also commonly users of electronic media but are also growing and developing and tend to have increased sleep requirements.Children's bedrooms are now connected to "global networks" through the use of cell phones and Internet (13). Sleep is vitally important to the growth, behavior, emotional development, and cognitive functioning of children and adolescents (14). Children may develop behavior problems due to sleep deficiencies which may interfere with learning (15). Changes in sleep quality or duration may also have a significant impact on hormone release, cardiovascular activity and glucose regulation and may have an overall impact on morbidity (16). Therefore, due to the ever-expanding use of electronic media, and the vital importance of sleep, it is important to examine the relationship between the two for the health of our children, adolescents, and society.MethodsLiterature search was conducted using PubMed and included terms such as "Internet", "Internet addiction", "media", "sleep", "sleep difficulty", "sleep disturbance", and "insomnia." Of the articles found, the references were reviewed which revealed further relevant literature.Through the synopsis of articles below, this review investigates the role of media use (including Internet addiction, Internet use, mobile phones, and computers) on sleep, particularly as a cause of sleep disturbances. …