According to an independent study, kids lose a night’s sleep every week checking social media updates

Children under the age of 12 cumulatively lose up to a night’s sleep each week using apps designed specifically to distract them from other daily activities, according to a study by British researchers. Up to two-thirds of British children spend at least two hours before bedtime trying to catch up on all the news from social media, according to the study, which focused on British children.

More seriously, 12.5% of children with internet access via their favourite smartphone wake up even well after midnight to check notifications triggered on their favourite social networks.

Officially, children should sleep between 9 and 11 hours a night to get the best possible rest, the problem lies in the less-than-ideal sleep pattern, which ideally does not exceed 8.7 hours.

TikTok had the highest engagement from children, with 90% of those surveyed saying they used the app. Snapchat was used by 84%, while just over half of those surveyed said they used Instagram. Overall, the conclusion of the survey seems to be that some of the currently trendy social media apps are very damaging to children’s well-being, according to data collected on the official dale,