People who go on social media during the night have mental issues.

[llizzie]

Don't blame me - not my words.

It was reported on the news yesterday, but I didn't hear the debate if there was one. Too busy posting on social media.

If someone did see th e debate, perhaps they would like to respond?

I doubt very much if there is much research evidence to show that. I challenge it, but don't have the evidence to show that.

Many people find the quiet of the night enables them to chat with others. They are not interrupted by phone calls and kids.

They work odd shifts.
Some people have contacts across the pond who are up when UK is sleeping.

Do you agree with the statement?

I presume it may mean people who dont get much sleep over a 24 hour period more than shift workers or people who have different sleep patterns to others

But regardless if it works for people, I am not one of them, then there is no issue regardless so no issue with any article saying anything as people can use their brain and do what they want like mature adults should

I would say it's usually people with some sort non standard circumstance that tends to be awake during the night (I'm talking midnight to 5am, not 9pm).

That will include a lot of people with mental health issues but not always. I'm awake as my fibro made me crash out and sleep at 2pm after I got back from a hospital appointment and I can't lie around in bed trying to sleep until the morning as I get horrific back pain after 7 hours lying down.

It will also include breastfeeding mothers, people coming home after evening shifts at work, people awake in pain, people with sleep disorders etc.

All of the above could contribute to poor mental health so it may be more correlation rather than causation.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/social-media-depression-anxiety-wellbeing-mental-health-b2842628.html

It’s 3 am and I’m posting this as I’m wide awake. I’m an appalling sleeper.

For me it’s perimenopause which is making me tired early evening, and then wide awake in the early hours. Sure, I could get up and clean the kitchen, but I prefer to lie in bed and mumsnet or read my book.

Same

I'm awake because I have a cough and I'm coughing up phlegm.

My partners ADHD often keeps him awake; when I wake up and see he’s posted something in the wee hours I know it was a bad night. So I get it.

If it is an expectorant cough, you should go to your GP.

If it is mainly a dry cough - very common at night, when the air is dry or you turn over and the oesophagus presses on the bronchial tube. There is a treatment for coughing at night that I have used for years and works each time. It is a tablespoon of white port. It probably won't work if you are used to port, because anything you are used to probably would not work as well. The body gets used to things.

If you are not used to it, keep a small glass with white port on the bedside cabinet, then if you wake up coughing, one swallow will stop it. Don't ask me how it works, but it does, and others have told me. It is a very old remedy which disappeared with the NHS being free and people wanting medicines.

Port wine is the juice of grapes, fermented, not a lot of chemical additives in cough mixture. It is alcoholic: not for children. Buttercup syrup is great for kids.

Another point in it's favour is that ml for ml it is much cheaper than cough syrup on sale. A bottle of port wine - 72ml is far less than a bottle of over the counter cough mixture which I find is useless. I say white port, because the red attracts fruit flies in the night, but you can put a cover on the glass.

People have laughed at me until the try it out for themselves when they cough.

@llizzie thanks for the info but it was only a bit of phlegm, I get post nasal drip and am usually snotty when I get up but at the moment it's not an excessive cough. It was a couple of days ago flipping painful to cough because of dryness. I managed the occasional coughing bouts with Jakeman's throat and chest sweets, lots of water and frequent toilet visits to prevent wetting myself 😀. I don't drink alcohol but use natural remedies, honey, ginger, lemon, sage or thyme tea and hot ribena. My cough is lessening. I haven't been to the Doctors for a cough and/or cold for over 30 years.

I think the statement was that there was a link between people who use social media in the night and those with mental health issues. Saying there is a link doesn't mean that one causes the other. It could be that people suffering poor mental health tend not to sleep well. Or that poor sleep causes mental health problems. Or that using social media affects mental health, or affects sleep patterns etc. You can't 'disagree' with the statement but you might inferior different things from it.

This is going to go down like a lead balloon, but here goes...

I was a Sports Therapist for years. Once folk were on my massage table, I got all their woes. 70% of them had mental health issues and all of those people professed to have sleep issues or insomnia. All of them also admitted to going on their phones during the night. I used to tell them that it wasn't a good thing to use phones in the night and to turn off before bed and / or put phones in a different room etc. None of them took any notice. Health conditions prevailed, pain continued, mental health conditions spiralled, menopause was exacerbated and heart problems tended to worsen (I also found that most of my clients used too much coffee or energy drinks to get them through their days of "poor sleep" which are also really bad for health)

Do you think the internet, mobile phones, and social media are collectively becoming like the 'chicken and egg' with mental illness? A case of 'what came first?'

I don't have a mobile phone. I have never had one. I cannot use them. I am disabled, I find they are heavy, but texting is impossible. I had carpal tunnel op so I could go back to typing, but texting? I am beginning to be thankful for not having one. To see you write that people are on them all night is just - words fail me. I don't even like the landline much, but it is a necessity, and I have to admit that one of my helper's phones is very useful for Patient Access! They also take photos of the bits of me that need seeing to and show them at the surgery, so I have to say I do actually make use of them.

Dementia is on the increase, we are told. Will it be worse in the future because everyone seems to put all their details, friends and family, phone numbers, on their phones and don't even have to remember what the date is?

So long as I can type on this keyboard with half the letters rubbed off, remember the passwords to sites I have not saved, I shall continue as I am.