People today get less sleep than in the past. What is the cause of this?

What are the

possible effects of this development?

There is no denying the fact that people these days sleep less than they used to. This essay will
take a deep dive into the main reasons that lead to the phenomenon and its potential
consequences in several aspects. 

The causes of sleep decline are innumerable. One of the most compelling reasons is
technological developments. Unprecedented advances in technology, namely the flourish of the
Internet and telecommunication services in The Industrial Revolution 4.0 have led to a surge in
screen time on technological devices such as smartphones, laptops, etc. The use of electronic
devices for social networking, entertaining before sleeping excites our brain and nervous
system, causing it hard to fall asleep. Another factor that causes the lack of sleep is a term
called “revenge bedtime procrastination”, which happened almost in overworked people. After
a long day stressed and busy with daily work, these people tend to trade off their bedtime to
reclaim some hours of scrolling through social media or relaxing with movies and music and
misspent precious sleep time. 

Lack of sleep results in ripple outcomes in several aspects, especially health, productivity and
workplace accidents. Sleep deprivation lowers the activity of the Immune system and prevents
it from defending against diseases. As an example, various researches have shown that people
who had sleep shortage were more likely to have diabetes, obesity, depression, and asthma
than those whose bedtime is steady. Besides health problems, lack of sleep also decreases
productivity and causes unfortunate accidents. According to the National Sleep Foundation,
sleep deprivation increases workplace accidents to 70%. 

To conclude, there are numerous causes of sleep shortage, but technological development and
bedtime procrastination are the most common factors that lead to the phenomenon. Sleep
deprivation, hence, can negatively affect both personal life and daily work.