The Effect of Smartphone Usage at Night on Mental Well-being and Sleep

Smartphone usage at night and its effect on sleep duration and quality, and its overall impact on mental health is a widely debated subject, with many of the studies being conducted having different or inconclusive results based around several factors such as: maturation, the environment and how the device is used. A smartphone is a multi-functional media and telecommunication digital device that be used to communicate, play games and listen to music from anywhere in the world. In this essay we will discuss if the use of smartphones at night or before bed, has an effect on sleep quality, sleep disturbance and if these factors share a link with experiencing negative psychological symptoms such as depression and/or anxiety. Furthermore, to also explore whether or not there is a relationship between mobile phone use and sleep, and if manipulating the conditions of the use of the smartphone through different mediums such as: using blue light filters and the content on the device will play a key role in the effects on an individual’s overall sleep, and also if using the phone will affect the secretion of the brains sleep hormone, melatonin. There is growing body of evidence that using laptops tablets and smartphones before going to sleep has a detrimental effect on sleep quality.

A good night’s sleep is essential for optimal mental processing and metabolic function, It was estimated by the Australian Sleep Health foundation that approximately 39.8% of Australians suffer from insuffient sleep or poor sleep quality, which can potentially lead to psychological issues such as sleep disorders and/or depression and also a variety of other physical problems ie. Restless leg syndrome, Obstructive sleep apnoea. With around 8% of Australian adults being affected by sleep apnoea and a further 19% suffering from different forms of insomnia. It is clear that a large amount of the Australian population of adults get an inadequate amount of sleep every night which prevents optimal cognitive function throughout the following day. Possible causes for the lack of adequate sleep, aside from smartphone use at night or in the hour before bed, could be attributed to the individual’s personal lifestyle choices such as the person’s occupation ie. Shift work disrupts the circadian rhythm timing resulting in sleep-wake disturbances, and even be the starting basis for developing sleep disorders, another factor that could contribute to insufficient sleep in Australian adults is a high level of stress. The circadian rhythm refers to the body’s natural internal clock that typically keeps a regulated cycle within the body. It is also known as an individual’s sleep/wake cycle. Disrupting the body’ circadian rhythm can effect a person long term, both physically and mentally. Those with shorter sleep times were found to have an increase in excessive day time sleepiness, poorer performance in daily activities, and also throw off the body’s natural habits and to also have a greater negative psychological effect, over a 3 month period 29% of adults admitted to making errors at work due to sleepiness. In adolescence, mobile phone use is becoming more prevalent, a study undertaken in a developed coastal city in china found that the use of a smartphone before bed is associated with significantly shorter sleep duration, and the child’s sleep onset latency had dramatically increased rather than those who didn’t use their device before bed.

Digital media use at night has been found to have the potential to affect sleep duration and sleep quality. Epidemiological studies reported that a high rate of smartphone use may be a factor that is related to shorter sleep duration and later bed times or sleep onset latency. Digital media devices such as smartphones or tablets emit a short wavelength of blue light, with the wavelength being between 460-480nm. This type of light has been proven to supress the production of the essential sleep hormone melatonin. In a study conducted in the UK, with the hypothesis of the study being if the effects of using digital media at night or before bed will impact on the quality and duration of sleep, and if manipulating the content and the light emitted from the devices will have any effect, researchers carried out the study on female undergraduate students, aged 18-23. Firstly they tested if placing a LEE 104 deep amber screen on the device to filter out the blue light would have any effect, the amber covering filtered out all but 0-18% of the wavelength light. Secondly, they looked to see if the content on screen, whether it be high arousal or low arousal content such as using Facebook on your own account (higher arousal) or through a ‘dummy’ account (low arousal), will have an impact on the individuals sleep, a study conducted on adolescence in china showed similar results. The results showed participants using the blue light filter had a better quality and duration of sleep, whilst the participants with low arousal and high arousal content having a lesser quality and duration of sleep, but when low-arousal content and filtered blue light are coupled together, participants in this category had the best sleep. In relation to low arousal and high arousal screen content, it has been found that using smartphones for game usage also has a negative impact to sleep in children. It has also been established that listening to music before bed has a negative effect on adolescences sleep, but has a positive effect on sleep in adults.

There are several mechanisms that have been proposed to explain the effect of digital media use at night and its effect on sleep duration and quality. Firstly, a mechanism that was proposed is that electronic media use at night may displace sleep as using media at night is not a structured leisure activity, meaning it has no fixed starting or end point, thus users aren’t restricted on the time that they use the device, which could cause sleep displacement. A second mechanism proposed to have an effect on sleep duration and quality is the nature of the content viewed, which would impact on the cognitive, emotional and physiological arousal of the viewer. A study in Australia concluded that playing games on a device moderately effected the users sleep latency negatively and also decreased sleepiness, while a study conducted on swiss adolescents found that playing more violence based electronic games had an impact physiologically on the children, with the results showing an increase in heart rate and small changes in neuroendocrine responses. Thirdly, the mechanism through which short sleep duration has an impact on behavioural and emotional functioning, could mean adolescents will have a lessened ability to regulate ones behaviour and emotions. It has been proven that inadequate sleep is associated with depression and anxiety, and also linked with a higher chance of developing depression and anxiety in adolescents. While in individuals above the teenage age bracket, mobile applications such as Facebook have been specifically linked with depression. Although there has been a link established between Facebook and depression, the content viewed on the application is more likely to cause depression in an individual rather then the pure use of the application itself. Moreover, insufficient sleep quality and duration does affect mental well-being, but it is largely dependant on a persons lifestyle and other individual factors i.e. occupation.

In conclusion, there is a wealth of evidence that supports the argument of “does smartphone usage at night affect mental well-being?” such as the way the smart device can be used and its content and also the time spent on the smartphone. Blue light filters will lessen the effects of the strength of the wavelength but will still effect sleep quality and duration to some extent. It has also been proven that the light emitted from such devices will supress the production and secretion of melatonin, resulting in inadequate sleep. Insufficient sleep and poor sleep quality will affect your mental well-being to some degree, as it varies from person to person, but will not always be in the form of depressive symptoms or other psychological disorders.