Going device-free an hour before bedtime or turning on the ‘night shift’ on your smartphone may not be enough to improve sleep. A new study found an association between smartphone screen time throughout the day and the user’s quality of sleep. Longer average screen time throughout the day was linked to poorer sleep quality and less sleep. Researchers analyzed screen times from over 600 individuals, and found that an average user spends 3.7 minutes every hour looking at their phone. The data was self-reported through a special app, which recorded the participants’ screen time.
Authors:
Matthew A. Christensen, Laura Bettencourt, Leanne Kaye, Sai T. Moturu, Kaylin T. Nguyen, Jeffrey E. Olgin, Mark J. Pletcher, Gregory M. Marcus
Corresponding author:
Greg Marcus, Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, US
Original paper published in PLOS One on November 9, 2016.
