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Increased Smartphone Screen-Time Is Associated With Lower Sleep Quality, Says Study (medicalxpress.com)
A new study from the University of California is the latest to show that increased smartphone screen-time can lower one's quality of sleep, which can lead to various negative health conditions such as obesity, diabetes and depression. Medical Xpress reports: Christensen and colleagues sought to test the hypothesis that increased screen-time may be associated with poor sleep by analyzing data from 653 adult individuals across the United States participating in the Health eHeart Study. Participants installed a smartphone application which recorded their screen-time, defined as the number of minutes in each hour that the screen was turned on, over a 30-day period. They also recorded their sleeping hours and sleep quality. The researchers found that each participant totaled an average of 38.4 hours over this period, with smartphones being activated on average for 3.7 minutes in each hour. Longer average screen-time was associated with poor sleep quality and less sleep overall, particularly when smartphones were used near participants' bedtime. The authors state that their study is the first to measure smartphone exposure prospectively, but caution that the study also had some important limitations, including the self-selection of study participants and self-reporting of data. The study has been published in the journal PLOS ONE.
I don't need sleep, I have an app do it.
Table-ized A.I.
If you RTFA, you'll find one HUGE get-out clause saying "These findings cannot support conclusions on causation. Effect-cause remains a possibility: poor sleep may lead to increased screen-time"
Meaning if people have a poor night's sleep, they may be spending more time on their phone BECAUSE THEY ARE AWAKE.
I wonder how much these geniuses spent to work out yet another statement of the bleeding obvious?
Good night everyone.
This just in: Insomniacs do more things with the things they own when they can't sleep.
During some health/hormonal issues I started paying attention to my sleep too. I absolutely feel it is vital to being productive. (Everybody's mileage may vary, obviously.)
I've become a big fan of screen reddening apps, incandescent/warm-white light sources, and wearing yellow/orange glasses some hours before bedtime - all the general melatonin-killing blue light avoidance being punted for years now.
What people do seem to often miss however, is the thing about timing. Melatonin is produced only for a certain window period during the early evening. Trudging on through that window period by forcing yourself to stay awake, makes me unable to fall asleep later on, no matter how tired. So no late-night reading or surfing past bedtime, no matter how thrilling the novel or how .... uhmmm... interesting american election memes, how compelling the conversation, or how urgent the deadline. The corollary of this is that one has to work out a good bed-time routine and stick to it 7 days a week.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc!
Nothing in the article says screen time can lower one's quality of sleep!! That is entirely the hasty conclusion of the editor here.
Perhaps people who are up with isomnia turn to their phones?!?
If the study extends to the larger screens on laptops and computers in general? I don't think so.
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Of course the causation runs in both directions here.
It's likely that poor sleep leads to poorer function; it's likely that poorer function leads to stress, anxiety, and more screen time; and its likely that this in turns contributes to poor sleep. All three "likelies" have support within the existing literature.
Which doesn't stop a likely threesome from coming out upside down.
The next study requires an even larger budget. But first, you're probably going to do a cheap study to at least suggest that the two effects move in the same direction, once any kind of measurement enters the room.
Doh! they're so stupid for looking before they leap.
They give the observed averages, but nothing about how it varies from person to person, or with usage habits. Like a reading with unspecified error.
John_Chalisque
Poor sleep has been scientifically linked to increased creativity. There again, it's also linked to shorter lifespan.
Write bad code, get some sleep. (if you can)
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Cyclical. I'm depressed because I stare at my phone; which makes me want to stare at my phone because I'm depressed. Only the Chinese can save me by taking out our satellites.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
So why don't we ever hear about the effect of LCD TVs on sleep? Surely a 60" TV blazing at you for hours is worse than a 6" screen.
It's not actually surprising to see why this might be true if you look at this link, which explains that blue light suppresses secretion of melatonin and interferes with sleep. And I doubt everyone installs Twilight or CF.lumen on their phone if it's Android, and previous versions of iOS didn't have Night Mode if I remember correctly.
PSA that everyone should consider using Twilight or an equivalent screen tuner if you aren't already. iOS added it to stock preferences, desktops can use f.lux
FTA:
...particularly when smartphones were used near participants' bedtime.
Uh, yeah. That information has been known for decades. The amount of brain activity, light color and intensity, and distance of device from sleeping space (disassociation of device activity with sleep area) are known causes of trouble getting to sleep and maintaining a healthy sleep pattern. Unsure what this is supposed to be telling us that was previously unknown.
TFS says that the participants averaged 38.4 hours of sleep over 30 days. That's just over one hour per night. I don't think so. Either there's a major typo in TFS or whoever wrote up the study is missing a very obvious error.
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This story is rubbish. Send from my iPhone, 2:06am .