Reaching for the smartphone before going to bed has become a habit for many people. But how does this affect our sleep? New studies show surprising things.
Night mode function on smartphones: Not so useful after all?
The blue light from screens has a bad reputation for keeping you awake and making sleep uncomfortable. But it could be so easy to avoid it: at the touch of a button, the harmful blue tones disappear and the mobile phone display is bathed in warmer colors.
But according to a study by Brigham Youth University (BYU), it is unfortunately not that simple. A total of three different ways of falling asleep were tested on 168 people between the ages of 18 and 24. While one group of test subjects were supposed to fall asleep with the Night Shift mode activated, another group used cell phones with the night mode deactivated.
A third group, however, was asked to do without their cell phones for an hour before going to bed. The participants were randomly assigned to the respective groups. They were tested using iPhone screens for a total of seven nights in a row.
No differences in sleep improvement
The result was sobering. There were no significant differences between the three groups. “In our entire study sample, there were no differences in sleep outcomes that could be attributed to Night Shift. In people who regularly got enough sleep, avoiding screen use led to better sleep quality than talking on the phone with Night Shift activated,” the study says.
“Although there is a lot of evidence that blue light from cell phones increases alertness and makes it harder to fall asleep, it is important to think about what proportion of this stimulation is due to light emission and what proportion is due to other cognitive and psychological stimulation,” said Chad D. Jensen, co-author and professor at BYU, in a subsequent press release from his university.
