Scrolling through social media until you fall asleep may impact on sleep and increase health problems. — Photo: SEBASTIAN GOLLNOW/dpa
People who want a better shot at getting a sound night’s shut-eye should make sure it’s not just lights out but phone off too when hitting the hay.
That’s according to scientists in Norway who surveyed around 45,000 students and found that in-bed screen-time increases the risk of developing insomnia by 59% and can shave almost a half an hour off whatever sleep can be had.
And while many might assume such restlessness to be down to people fretting over social media posts – perhaps not getting enough likes for their latest Instagram post or scant engagement with a bit of reply-guy trolling on X – the Norwegian survey suggests otherwise.
“Screen use itself is the key factor in sleep disruption – likely due to time displacement, where screen use delays sleep by taking up time that would otherwise be spent resting,” said Gunnhild Johnsen Hjetland of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Writing up their findings in the journal Frontiers In Psychiatry, the Norwegian team “found no significant differences between social media and other screen activities”.
“Screen use is thought to impact sleep in four ways: notifications disturb sleep, screen time replaces sleeping time, screen activities keep you wakeful so you take longer to fall asleep, or light exposure delays circadian rhythms,” according to the researchers, who used data drawn from Norway’s 2022 Students’ Health and Well-being survey covering 45,202 people between 18 and 28 years old.
The Norwegian findings follow the publication on the 28th of a paper in Frontiers In Communication Science showing that people who are constantly distracted by their phones – grabbing it at every notification, losing focus on work – will find other reasons to prevaricate and procrastinate even if they take the drastic cold turkey step of keeping away from the phone for extended periods.
“Putting the smartphone away may not be sufficient to reduce disruption and procrastination, or increase focus,” said Maxi Heitmayer of the London School of Economics, who carried out tests in which 22 people were left to work using their computers and phones for two days in a soundproof room.
“Our phones are an endless source of distraction, and we interact with them every four to six minutes,” publisher Frontiers said. – dpa
