Smartphone addiction ruins sleep, study says, but you can fight back

Question: Do you use your phone before bed?

Addiction to smartphones will result in poor sleep, according to a new study. The study, published Tuesday in Frontiers in Psychiatry, looked at smartphone use among 1,043 students between the ages of 18 and 30 at King’s College London. Researchers asked the students to complete two questionnaires on their sleep quality and smartphone usage, in person and online. Using a 10-question validated scale that was developed to assess smartphone addiction in children, nearly 40% of the university students qualified as “addicted” to smartphones, the study found. Students who reported high use of cellphones also reported poor sleep quality, the study found. That falls in line with prior studies that have found overuse of smartphones at night to be associated with trouble falling asleep, reduced sleep duration and daytime tiredness. That’s likely because use of smartphones close to bedtime has been shown to delay circadian rhythm, the body’s normal sleep-and-wake clock.