Internet, mobile phones 'sabotaging sleep'
AAP
August 13, 2007 01:42am
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+ - Print Email Share Add to MySpace Add to Digg Add to del.icio.us Add to Fark Post to Facebook Add to Kwoff What are these? THE fast pace of modern life with all its technological trappings is depriving people of sleep, a leading sleep expert warns.
Excessive mobile phone and internet usage throughout the night means people are getting less sleep, clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller has told the ABC's Four Corners program.
More than a million Australians suffer from insomnia or other sleep disorders, estimated to cost the community over $10 billion.
Up to 35 per cent of children have some type of sleep problem.
Mr Fuller has surveyed tens of thousands of adolescents about their lifestyles and sleeping habits.
"I think we live in a society that doesn't value sleep,'' he said.
"We live in a society that basically has this idea of you're accessible and alert and contactable 24 hours a day. And that's certainly a myth for young people and their friends.''
Mr Fuller suggests separating electronics from bedrooms.
'' ... So computers, televisions, mobile phones, are all really sabotaging sleep,'' he said.