IF YOU are thinking of giving up something in January, consider a late-night digital detox. Why? I fear our obsessive love affair with smartphones is affecting sleep, especially among the young.
Last year鈥檚 reported 91 per cent of 18 to 44-year-olds in the UK own a smartphone. These are clearly desirable devices but less desirable is the way many people, especially the young, use them. That same survey showed half of 18 to 24-year-olds check their phone in the middle of the night.
Likewise the Headmasters鈥� and Headmistresses鈥� Conference, which represents the head teachers of independent schools, surveyed 2750 pupils aged 11 to 18 and found . Of these, 23 per cent did so more than 10 times and a quarter spent more than an hour on mobiles after going to bed; 68 per cent said this affected schoolwork and a quarter said it left them tired during the day.
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of studies involving 125,198 children suggests use of portable devices with screens is responsible for a shift towards poorer sleep patterns and daytime sleepiness.
鈥淎 recent analysis suggests that night-time phone use is behind a shift to poorer sleep patterns鈥�
There are various theories on smartphones鈥� role in slumber. Sleep could simply be displaced by phone use, leaving less time for rest, or fiddling with your device at bedtime might prompt increased mental, emotional or physiological arousal, meaning it takes longer to get to sleep. Then there is the screen light especially at the blue end of the spectrum, which may interfere with melatonin secretion (our body鈥檚 鈥渟leep hormone鈥�) or circadian rhythm (our in-built clock). Finally, incoming messages, emails, status updates or calls can disturb sleep and reduce quantity and quality of 鈥渞estorative鈥� sleep.
My worry is that as well as daytime doziness, such sleep loss could also be a potential factor in mental and physical illness.
For example, a recent meta-analysis of the relationship between sleep and depression concluded that sleep disturbance in adolescence.
If you think your night-time phone habit is out of hand, now is the time to consider a change.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淕ive it a rest鈥�
