Evelyn Huynh

There are many negatives and positives that a smartphone can have, but a new study suggests that the more time you spend on your smartphone, the worse you’ll sleep.

Studies have shown that people who use their smartphones for the most time during the month-long study period get less sleep and were less likely to have a quality sleep than those who spent less time on their phones. It also states that people who used their smartphones right before bedtime took longer to fall asleep.

“Exposure to smartphone screens, particularly around bedtime, may negatively impact sleep,” researchers wrote.

“I don’t use my phone much, so my sleep isn’t affected like people who do use their phone as much,” stated 7th grader Dillon Hoang.

In the study, researchers asked 653 adults to install an app on their Android phones that recorded how many minutes the phone’s screen was turned on whenever the phone was not in airplane mode. After 30 days, results showed that participants used, on average, 1 hour and 29 minutes each day. There was no link between smartphone use and people’s amount of physical activity. However, smartphone use links to poor quality of sleep.

Studies have suggested that screen time at night connects with poor sleep and shorter sleep time. This may be due to the blue light from screens.

The next time a smartphone is picked up, try to budget your time to get a healthy night’s sleep.