Hey night owls! Tweeting at night linked to worse mental well-being. (Bristol, U.K.) [View all]

[usonian]

Last edited Mon Oct 13, 2025, 11:14 AM - Edit history (1)

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-tweeting-night-linked-worse-mental.html

Posting on Twitter (also known as X) throughout the night is associated with worse mental well-being, according to a new study from the University of Bristol published in Scientific Reports.

Tweeting throughout the night explained almost 2% of variation in participants' mental well-being, which is comparable to activities like binge drinking and smoking marijuana (as measured in previous studies).

Researchers suggested that actively using Twitter during the night could both disrupt and delay sleep, which could reduce the quality and quantity of sleep, harming mental well-being. Nighttime tweeting showed a weaker relationship with depressive and anxiety symptoms (compared to mental well-being), although this became stronger after results were split by age and sex.

Seventy-four percent of U.K. adults keep their phone in their bedroom at night, while 26% say they would check their phone if they wake up in the night, according to a 2022 YouGov survey.

Free Access paper
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-14745-y (read online)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-14745-y.pdf (pdf)

Tweet Sweet Dreams.

Edit to add.
This study applies only to twitter/twitler.

I believe that most DU'ers do not stay up all night, and that most critically, DU is moderated. I only participate here and at Hacker News, which is also heavily moderated. Neither has ads, or is adless for a small amount or a free adblocker.

I was thinking this morning how I have seen or heard zero ads pro or con Prop 50 in CA. That's because I do zero TV, and use non-commercial radio. (Mostly over the internet. Audio streams use very little data. )

The "media" I use are intended for the benefit of their users/audience, and are not rage-driven. I would describe the large social media sites as antisocial media.