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.

Comments

Get with the times

[Tablizer]

I don't need sleep, I have an app do it.

Re: Get with the times

[lxs]

I think the problem with this world is people wanting everything to be fixed for them by a pill, a service, an app or a politician.

Take responsibility for your own life and good health.
Fix broken stuff.
Cook your own food.
Keep learning.
Don't rely on external factors to fix your broken life and bad habits.
Now help others to do the same.

(Add a blurry Instagram photo for a background and we're done.)

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

[niks42]

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?

Re:Post hoc ergo propter hoc

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, the study has its limitations. I applaud those conducting it for clearly stating those limitations. Its refreshing to see as so often they are not even mentioned or buried deep in the details under misleading headlines. Just stating those limitations makes this better science, IMHO, than many of the crap reports we see here on /.

Anecdotal

[codeButcher]

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.