Is texting getting in the way of your sleep?

Between practicing sports, attending school group meetings, doing homework and hanging out with friends, most high school students find it hard to fit enough sleep into their busy schedules. That is, of course, when they make a good-faith effort to get sleep.

So what’s the problem? New research has shown that many teens sleep with their cell phone or laptop, and are getting even less sleep than teens did a decade ago, due to an increase of social networking.

According to MercuryNews.com, texting doesn’t stop after teens get in bed. It continues into the wee hours of the morning, and in the past two years the average number of texts sent per teen has gone up 566 percent. That’s an increase from 435 texts per month to 2,899 per month!

A recent Belgian study found that late-night texting is affecting the sleep cycles of 44 percent of Belgian teens.

It’s not a novel idea that teens don’t get enough sleep. Researchers have been telling us that for a long time. But the reasons why they’re not getting enough sleep are changing.