--- title: What Your Facebook Habit Means For Your Sleep description: It can become a vicious cycle. canonical: https://time.com/4215874/facebook-sleep-deprivation/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-11T13:00:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:17.669Z article:section: Health og:title: What Your Facebook Habit Means For Your Sleep og:description: It can become a vicious cycle og:url: https://time.com/4215874/facebook-sleep-deprivation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd40c6dbd633d3df9/6987788f55a85964a0a851da/iphone-social-apps-facebook-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: TIME.com stock photos Social Apps iPhone Facebook og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Your Facebook Habit Means For Your Sleep twitter:description: It can become a vicious cycle twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd40c6dbd633d3df9/6987788f55a85964a0a851da/iphone-social-apps-facebook-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Your Facebook Habit Means for Your Sleep > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Facebook App Accused Of Asking For Too Much Of Your Info [Watch (HLS stream): Facebook App Accused Of Asking For Too Much Of Your Info](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TvaCHyk5.m3u8) (1:10)  _Published 2015-11-25. An app that shows you the words that you use most often on Facebook shouldn't be that controversial, but the amount of information it requests may be._ by [Jacqueline Andriakos / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Jacqueline Andriakos / Health.com Contributor Feb 11, 2016 1:00 PM UTC  Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME by [Jacqueline Andriakos / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Jacqueline Andriakos / Health.com Contributor Feb 11, 2016 1:00 PM UTC It’s no secret that your late-night [social media binges](http://news.health.com/2014/08/01/5-things-i-learned-when-i-quit-facebook/?utm%5Fsource=health.mazavr.tk&utm%5Fmedium=link&utm%5Fcompaign=article) can [interfere with your rest](http://news.health.com/2015/09/02/light-from-smartphones-tablets-may-lower-sleep-hormone-in-kids/). But did you ever suspect that daytime Facebook use could also be related to the quality of your sleep? A new study, to be presented this spring, suggests that browsing your feed a few dozen times a day could be a [symptom of sleep deprivation](https://news.uci.edu/feature/uci-researchers-link-compulsive-facebook-checking-to-lack-of-sleep/). Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, analyzed the activities of a group of 76 undergrads and found that those who weren’t logging [enough sleep](http://www.health.com/health/package/0,,20715789,00.html) at night were logging more time on the social-networking site during the day. **_Health.com:_**[_30 Sleep Hacks for Your Most Restful Night Ever_](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20977819,00.html?xid=time) Over the course of one week, informatics professor Gloria Mark, PhD, and her team gathered computer and smartphone data from the people in the study using special software. The students also completed a sleep survey each morning and night; throughout the week, the researchers polled them on their moods, how engaged they felt with their work, and how difficult they perceived various tasks to be. After the researchers accounted for gender, age, work loads and deadlines, they discovered a direct link between chronic lack of sleep, worsening mood and productivity, and increased web browsing, including Facebook checking. They also found that the exhausted subjects shifted their attention from one screen to the next more often than the well-rested students. **_Health.com:_** [_14 Reasons You’re Always Tired_](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20818045,00.html?xid=time) “When you get less sleep, you’re [more prone to distraction](https://news.uci.edu/feature/uci-researchers-link-compulsive-facebook-checking-to-lack-of-sleep/),” Mark explained in a press release. “If you’re being distracted, what do you do? You go to Facebook. It’s lightweight, it’s easy, and you’re tired.” Another finding to note: Sleep-deprived students said they felt that social media helped keep them energized. If you catch yourself compulsively toggling back and forth to Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat, it can’t hurt to start hitting the hay earlier. Pretty soon you may find you don’t need a social media fix just to stay alert. 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