Investigation of the relations between in the internet use and sleep habits of middle school students

In this study was aimed to examine the relationship between in the internet use and sleep habits of middle school students. Population of this study was the 5th, 6th and 7th grade students continuing the 2014-2015 education season in 35 middle schools which are subject to Bolu Provincial National Education Directorate. The samples of the research were 1546 students in 5th, 6th and 7th grades in 5 middle schools, chosen with simple random sampling and the formula with a known population was used for defining the sample size. Data were collected by a data collection form, prepared using literature. Within the scope of the research, a total of 1498 surveys were included in the analysis due to 21 students being absent during the days the research was being conducted and 27 students giving double answers to some of the survey questions. The data was entered in a statistical package program. Data was analyzed using number, percentage, median, mean, standard deviation and chi-square and fisher exact tests which for the significance of the difference between qualitative distribution. Besides almost the half of the students having a sleep problem and the mostly experienced sleep problem being sleep-onset insomnia, the reason of the students experiencing significant rates of sleep problems was determined to be unknown. It was seen that the bed time hours of the students delayed 1 hour on weekends compared to week days while waking hours delayed up to 2 hours. It was seen that more than half of the students slept more than 9 hours in week days. The research has confirmed that almost all of the students used internet and mostly they accessed their internet connection from their homes using telephones and laptop computers in general. Approximately half of the students used Internet daily for less than 2 hours, however it was determined that the students who used internet delayed their bed-time hours significantly due to internet use. As a result; students' states of internet use and their sleep habits are interrelated. It is considered that getting students to adopt healthy sleeping and ınternet using habits is necessary for a healthy adolescent development.