Could social media be the reason for our passions fizzling out?

A survey by Chemist4U has revealed that 46% of people are using social media in bed regularly.

6% of people admitted to spending well over an hour in total on social media in bed every week.

A further 9% disclosed that they spend over an hour every week browsing the internet in bed instead of sleeping too.

Unsurprisingly, the nation is sleep deprived. With only 16% of people feeling as though they get enough kip every night.

Which begs the question – what’s more important to us Brits… social media or sleep?

A survey ran by UK online pharmacy – Chemist 4 U has revealed a number of surprising statistics related to sleep and social media. It has been uncovered that only 24% of Brits get the recommended 7-8 hours sleep a night. With 46% admitting to using social media in bed, it begins to come clear as to why this may be.

Women tend to get an average of 8 minutes more sleep per night [an extra 49 hours/2 days per year] than men.

Unsurprisingly, just 16% of the population would say that they get enough sleep every night and 25% never wake up feeling recuperated. Which of course, should come as no shock given our night-time phone-scrolling habits.

The protons absorbed by the eyes from a Smartphone basically tell the brain to halt secreting melatonin and ultimately – stay awake. Those seemingly innocent minutes spent scrolling before bedtime could have a damaging knock on effect to your ability to drift off into a sound sleep.

And that’s not all Brits are doing in bed apart from sleeping. 15% spend over an hour a week watching TV in bed, while 10% are chatting to their partners.

And it seems that sleep may not be the only nighttime activity that is suffering at the hands of social media. 43% of those surveyed admitted to spending no time at all having sex. Could social media be the reason for our passions fizzling out?

It seems that as a nation, there’s plenty of us that keeps us from winding down at night. Could this be the reason for the country’s national issue of sleep deprivation?

Interestingly though, around 30% of people said they’d be willing to give up a portion of their salary for an extra hours kip a night. So, as a nation, do we value social media more? Here’s what some Twitter users had to say.

@_GarethG said: “During the evenings, I’m mostly active on WhatsApp and Instagram, my iPhone mentions 27 mins on screen, 1.5 hrs on screen for WhatsApp, 18 mins on screen for Twitter and 5 mins for Facebook.”

@LifeofLuce admitted: To spending “5 hours the other day” on social media.

What do you value more – your social feed or your sleep (or your sex life?!)?