Researchers have discovered a link between smartphone use and abnormal sleep patterns.
Studying the impact of handheld devices on sleep patterns, a team of researchers from the United States has discovered that the uncontrolled use of such devices may negatively impact our sleep quality.
Dr. Gregory Marcus, the study’s senior author, remarked that most people spend a great amount of time on their smartphone and tablets checking their social media account, watching movies, and playing games.
Furthermore, as the scientists added, most of smartphone users tend to use their devices just before hitting the sack. While the gesture is seemingly harmless, researchers have discovered that the blue light emitted by the mobile devices can actually overload our brain, make us restless at night, and sleepy during the daytime.
Needless to say, that this can no doubt affect our overall productivity and can lead to other health issues, as well. Marcus, the lead researcher of this new project, stated that working with data gathered from previous studies, he and his team of scientist have discovered that there’s a connection between smartphone use and abnormal sleep patterns.
However, knowing that there will be many detractors who would argue that the link is circumstantial, Marcus added that the new study has some limitations. The scientist declared that this study should not be construed as incontrovertible evidence that smartphones affect sleep patterns, but acknowledged that there is a strong link between the two.
For the purpose of this new study, the team of scientists asked for the help of several smartphone users. Each smartphone was outfitted with an application which monitored screen time, and the users were asked to pen down if there are any changes in sleep patterns.
The experiment lasted for a month, and, according to the preliminary results, the users spent an average of 38 hours using their smartphones. As the senior researcher points out, the study revealed that the more time the users spent on their handheld device, the poorer their sleep quality was.
While this is not definitive proof that smartphones have a negative impact on our health, Marcus cautioned that poor quality sleep could lead to other health issues such as obesity, diabetes, heart-related problems, and depression.
Research continues to find out if mobile devices do indeed have a negative impact on our sleep patterns. For now, doctors recommend that we cease all smartphone activity one or two hours prior to bedtime.
Image source: Pixabay