A new study has challenged the conventional wisdom about the negative impact of smartphone use on adolescent sleep. The study, published in Computers in Human Behavior, found that researchers failed to find a clear link between teens’ smartphone use before sleep and their sleep outcomes. This suggests that the impact of smartphones on sleep may be more complex than previously thought.
The prevalence of smartphone use among adolescents around the world has raised concerns about its potential impact on sleep. Previous research has suggested that inadequate sleep is associated with various negative outcomes, including academic performance, obesity, mental health issues, and more.
While numerous studies have explored the relationship between smartphone use and adolescent sleep, there have been limitations in the research. Most prior studies have been cross-sectional, making it challenging to establish causal links between smartphone use and sleep problems. Additionally, these studies often treat smartphone use as a stable behavior pattern, ignoring the day-to-day variations in sleep and media use patterns.
The new study aimed to address these limitations by using an electronic daily diary design and objective measurements of smartphone use to examine both between-person and within-person associations between adolescents’ smartphone use before sleep and various sleep outcomes.
Contrary to expectations, the researchers did not find significant associations between smartphone use before sleep and any of the sleep outcomes at the between-person level. The study included 203 Czech adolescents aged 13 to 17, who downloaded a custom-made mobile application on their smartphones to collect smartphone logs and administer short surveys for 14 consecutive days.
The findings of the study suggest that the impact of smartphones on sleep may be more complex than previously thought. Factors such as habituation to smartphone use and physiological adaptations to screen light could play a role in mitigating the potential negative effects.
The study also found that, on days when adolescents used smartphones before sleep for longer than their typical use, they tended to get more sleep. However, these associations were relatively small.
The authors of the study note that while their findings differ from some prior research reporting the adverse impact of smartphone use on adolescents, the methodological approach of their study, using objective data collected through a custom-made application, provides a more valid and accurate picture of adolescents’ smartphone use and sleep.
The study, titled “Are smartphones detrimental to adolescent sleep? An electronic diary study of evening smartphone use and sleep,” was authored by Michał Tkaczyk, David Lacko, Steriani Elavsky, Martin Tancoš, and David Smahel.
In conclusion, the study challenges the commonly held belief about the negative impact of smartphone use on adolescent sleep, suggesting that further research is needed to fully understand the complex relationship between smartphone use and sleep in adolescents.