Study: Scrolling on Your Phone in Bed Could Raise Insomnia Risk by Nearly 60% Here's how you can break your late night scrolling habit, according to experts
New research found that young adults who used screens in bed had worse sleep and a significantly higher risk of insomnia symptoms
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- New research found that every hour of screen time in bed is linked to 24 fewer minutes of sleep and a 59% higher risk of insomnia.
- While the explanation for the finding isn’t fully understood, researchers suspect screens may be to blame—emotional stimulation and media engagement makes it even harder to fall asleep.
- To break the habit, experts recommend not using screens in bed and finding alternative, relaxing activities to wind down at night, such as reading a book or drinking tea.
Do you find yourself scrolling endlessly on social media while in bed? You’re not alone.
About half of Americans watch TV and 45% scroll on their smartphone when struggling to fall asleep at night, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
But a new study found this habit could be linked to some pretty serious consequences for sleep and overall health.
Norwegian researchers published a study Monday in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry that surveyed over 45,000 participants ages 18 to 28 about their screen use in bed and their sleep habits. The key takeaway: Every hour of screen time in bed is linked to a 24-minute shorter sleep duration and a higher risk of insomnia.
Though the cause-and-effect isn’t completely clear, people who have insomnia or get less sleep are at a higher risk of developing a number of chronic conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and more.
“Reductions in sleep over time can contribute to cumulative sleep debt, increasing the risk of fatigue, impaired cognitive function, and poorer mental health,” senior study author Børge Sivertsen, PhD, senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, told Health. “For young adults, who already tend to have insufficient sleep, losing almost half an hour of sleep per night could be significant over weeks or months.”
Measuring the Impact of Screen Time in Bed
Though there’s been plenty of research linking late-night screen time to poorer sleep, this new study looked specifically at how people used their screens, and whether that had any influence on their sleep quality.
Sivertsen and his team analyzed data from an online survey called the 2022 Students’ Health and Wellbeing Study. The survey collected information about screen usage in bed, breaking it down into six different activities:
- Watching movies or TV shows
- Checking social media
- Surfing the web
- Listening to music, audiobooks, and podcasts
- Playing video games
- Doing readings for their coursework
When filling out the survey, the participants provided information about how many nights per week and how much time they had spent on each activity.
Additionally, the researchers asked participants to report their bedtime and rise time, and how long it took for them to fall asleep. They also gave information about how often they experienced insomnia symptoms, such as trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep, or daytime tiredness.
Measuring insomnia and overall sleep time separately was one of the study’s strengths, said Michael Grandner, PhD, a clinical psychologist and director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona.
“From a scientific perspective, they’re completely different things,” he told Health. “You could get eight hours of sleep and still have insomnia, or you could get five hours of sleep and have no insomnia.”
After assessing participants’ sleep, insomnia symptoms, and nighttime screen habits, Sivertsen and his colleagues found that each hour of looking at a screen in bed was linked to 24 fewer minutes of sleep. For example, if someone spent two hours watching TV in bed, they’d likely sleep 48 minutes less on average.
Participants’ risk of insomnia went up by 59% for each additional hour of screen time in bed, too.
Is One Screen Activity Worse For Your Sleep Than Others?
Interestingly, the researchers found, these declines in sleep duration and sleep quality were consistent regardless of how a person was using their screen.
Previous research looking at screen use in adolescents found that social media use had a strong, negative effect on sleep quality. But in this study, social media use was linked to insomnia and less sleep—it just wasn’t worse than other screen activities like researchers predicted.
“This finding was somewhat surprising and challenges the idea that social media use is uniquely disruptive to sleep,” Sivertsen said.
But the survey results might also indicate that “those who already have good sleep habits may be more likely to use social media as their primary screen activity, while those struggling with sleep might engage in a mix of more distracting or other screen activities,” he explained. More research will need to be done to investigate further.
There are other questions that remain, too. This study was done in younger adults, so it’s unclear whether these findings hold true for older people. Also, the study was conducted in a limited population—namely, full-time students in Norway.
However, most research on this subject has focused on teenagers and adolescents, making this one of the more comprehensive studies in adults, said Lauren Hale, PhD, sleep researcher and professor of family, population, and preventive medicine at Stony Brook Medicine.
And Hale and Grandner agreed that researchers would likely see similar results in other populations.
Does Screen Time Cause Sleep Problems?
Like many other studies of its kind, this survey can’t actually tell us if screen time is necessarily the cause behind participants’ reported sleep issues.
Screen use is considered a “risk factor” for less sleep. However, most studies have simply found an association between the two.
“If I use a screen, is it going to cause me to go to bed later? Or, is it just a characteristic of mine that I use screens and go to bed later?” Hale asked.
However, she told Health, researchers are getting closer to proving that it may be the former.
“The evidence is becoming more and more clear that there are certainly causal impacts of screen use on bedtime, through time displacement, through emotional stimulation, and engagement with the media,” Hale said.
Grander added that screen time could perpetuate a harmful cycle.
You might feel stressed about not getting enough sleep. That stress keeps your brain active and wandering, so you reach for your phone. Then, having spent time looking at your screen, your brain is more engaged, and you have even more trouble getting to sleep.
Ditching Screens in Bed to Boost Your Sleep
Though more questions about screen use and sleep still remain, experts agree it’s important to implement habits that build associations between your bed and sleep.
Hale suggested keeping the screens away from the bedroom altogether.
“Charge your phone in a different room overnight. Buy an alarm clock, and use that to wake yourself up in the morning if you need it,” she said. “Find an alternative, relaxing activity at bedtime—reading, listening to music, taking a bath, drinking tea.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and most experts recommend turning off all electronics a minimum of 30 minutes before going to bed.
This is ideal, however, it isn’t always realistic, said Grandner.
“I actually don’t think that’s good advice, because it’s not really a workable goal for most people,” he explained.
Instead, if you’re going to use screens at night, don’t do it in bed. “Do it in a way that minimizes its impact as much as possible,” Grandner said.
Additionally, if you find yourself lying in bed unable to sleep, get out of bed briefly until you feel tired. That means you’ll go to bed a bit later, but Grandner said it works to build a healthier sleep routine.
Julia Landwehr
Julia is the associate news editor for Health, where she edits and publishes news articles on trending health and wellness topics. Her work has been featured in The Heights, an independent student newspaper at Boston College, and Minnesota Monthly.
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This story originally appeared on: Health News - Author:Simon Spichak
