Burning the midnight oil is a phrase well used for working into the night.

But today’s cyber surfers are more likely to be tapping buttons to stay in touch than topping up their livelihood – but it may come at a price.

According to a new survey, nine out of ten people are sacrificing a good night’s sleep in order to stay in touch on the internet.

More than half of 2,000 people polled said they went online while in bed trying to sleep, and one in five admitted they needed to check their Twitter, Facebook or e-mail accounts because they have a ‘fear of missing out’. Just one in ten described their quality of sleep as ‘good.’ Research has shown the blue light emitted by devices such as mobile phones and tablets mimics daylight and suppresses production of a brain chemical called melatonin, which helps us sleep.

Dr Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, says: “As technology to keep us connected improves, we face a new battle with trying to switch off at night. Sufferers should try and avoid using phones, laptops and other screen-based devices for at least an hour before bed.

The survey, carried out by Nytol, also found almost half of people went straight from the couch to bed, less than 15 minutes after switching off the TV, two in five checked e-mails or social media accounts straight before bed, and one in four thought they were addicted to checking e-mails and social media in bed.

Emma, a 23-year-old graduate from Bradford, says her insomnia is made worse by not having her mobile phone in her bedroom.

She believes our reliance on hand-held technology has grown as it has become more accessible and easier to stay in touch.

“Everything is much easier and more accessible. It’s at your fingertips – you can look at holidays in the middle of the night.”

Smart phones are particularly significant for maintaining constant communication. They give users greater mobility than a laptop and are more likely to be kept in the bedroom than a laptop.

“Smart phones are essentially like a full working computer. You can respond to your work e-mails and look at Facebook and see what everybody else is doing. As many of us use our phones’ alarm function, it stays in the bedroom with you and if you get an e-mail or a text, you have to resist the temptation to have a look,” adds Emma.

She says she often finds it difficult to switch off. “If you are already someone who has trouble drifting off to sleep and then your phone bleeps or blinks, it is difficult not to pick it up and see what is going on.”

Emma isn’t the only one having difficulty literally switching off.

Dr David Dawson, a consultant anaesthetist at Bradford Royal Infirmary and sleep medicine specialist at St Luke’s Hospital, Bradford, says: “It is well recognised and it is something we do discuss at the conferences.

“We can see the pressure on people to continue being in touch rather than actually relaxing. In the evenings there is a lot of activity going on.

“Using social media it is not like sitting in front of the TV, it is interacting and there becomes a pressure with social media to respond. If you are not responding you are out of the loop and so there is that pressure to keep going rather than winding down in an evening.”

Dr Dawson says failure to wind down before bed makes it more difficult to drift off to sleep.

“We are recognising that people are not necessarily winding down as much in the evenings and, as such, that is then starting to make it more difficult for people to initiate sleep because they are still hyped up.”

He also raises the issue of ‘sleep debt’. “What you are actually doing is you are stealing a bit of your sleep and, as a result, ultimately you will pay back that debt at weekends.

“If you are finding you are not getting to sleep as you would wish and you are lying awake worrying about things and part of that is because of the things you have been doing through social media or online you need to take action and recognise it is happening to you and create a curfew for yourself for at least an hour winding down before bedtime. If that means switching off your phone or social media do that,” suggests Dr Dawson.