If you have trouble sleeping, one of the first pieces of advice you will receive is to put your smartphone away at night. But new research among teens now shows that that phone can actually be a welcome distraction before bed.
The blue light, the moving images plus all that scrolling, such a smartphone just keeps you awake. Sleep experts therefore recommend not taking the phone into the bedroom and preferably putting it away a few hours before going to sleep.
Sleep better with a phone
Yet Australian researchers now come up with a much more nuanced message after researching teenagers. They would use the smartphone in the evening as a distraction from negative thoughts, so that they fall asleep faster. The researchers of the Flinders University surveyed more than 600 Australian teens aged 12 to 18 between June and September 2019 about their smartphone use before bed. “Many teens struggle with a lot of thoughts when they can’t sleep,” said lead researcher Serena Bauducco. “This study shows that many adolescents use technology to distract themselves from those negative thoughts. That helps them fall asleep faster. This smartphone distraction is thus a mechanism that explains how sleep (or the lack of it) influences technology use and not the other way around,” the researchers conclude.
Passive entertainment
The majority of the 631 adolescents surveyed use smartphones as a distraction from negative or stressful thoughts. Almost 24 percent answered a resounding ‘yes’ to questions about this and almost 40 percent stated that the smartphone ‘sometimes’ provided a welcome distraction. The respondents were also asked which app was their favorite as a distraction from their worries. They could choose from WhatsApp, the phone, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Tumblr, Spotify, Netflix, a gaming app, an audiobook, or “anything else.” YouTube turned out to be by far the most popular: the video service was the favorite for almost a quarter of the teenagers. This was followed by Snapchat, Spotify and Instagram, which were used the most at about 15 percent.
The teenagers therefore opted mainly for passive entertainment, such as music or video clips, or for contact with peers via Instagram or Snapchat. Young people with sleep problems in particular were inclined to use the smartphone as a distraction, and it therefore worked for them to sleep better.
Solution for bad sleepers
“This study provides evidence that the relationship between teens, technology and sleep is much more complex than the previously accepted idea that phone use before bed is always negative and harmful,” said researcher Alexandra Daniels. For some adolescents with sleeping problems, it can be a solution.
Sleep expert and professor Michael Gradisar doesn’t think it’s a bad idea if there are recommendations for using certain apps as part of teens’ sleep routine to distract them from negative thoughts. Gradisar, as head of a sleep center in Sweden, focuses on all kinds of technology that can promote sleep, but also says it’s important to teach good sleep habits in childhood because they carry over into the teens and adulthood.
Gaming for too long
Although the Flinders researchers now show that there are also positive sides to smartphone use before going to sleep, they came to a different conclusion earlier. In their previous study, they wrote that high school students who used their phone, laptop or game console in the hour before going to bed were more likely to sleep too little during the school week, i.e. if they couldn’t sleep late.
However, these two conclusions seem perfectly compatible: on the one hand, the mobile phone keeps sound asleep teenagers awake when they are playing games or watching Netflix, for example. On the other hand, it can be useful for stressed teenagers with sleep problems because they forget their worries for a while.
Don’t worry for a while
The researchers emphasize this duality: “Evening smartphone use needs to be monitored to limit the damage, but technology will continue to be an important part of young people’s evenings.” And can sometimes also provide a better night’s sleep.