Scientists from Masaryk University in the Czech Republic have debunked the myth that using mobile phones in the evening and at night can cause sleep disorders. Research results published on ScienceDirect.
Many studies have been conducted on the effect of smartphones on sleep. It is thought that sleep deprivation caused by the habit of using phones before bed may have a negative impact on adolescents’ academic performance, mental and physical health. Czech scientists tried to find out whether this is true.
The new study included 203 Czech teenagers (aged 13 to 17). Participants downloaded a custom-built app onto their smartphones that collected data on the device’s performance for 14 days. Researchers analyzed how the duration and timing of phone use was associated with total sleep time, sleep efficiency, sleep quality, and daily sleepiness levels.
Contrary to expectations, researchers did not find a link between duration of smartphone use and increased risk of any sleep disorders. The sleepiness that participants sometimes reported to researchers was a result of decreased overall sleep time (including participants staying on their phones late into the night). But lack of sleep can also be caused by other reasons that are not related to late use of gadgets.
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