WASHINGTON — Smartphones can do almost anything these days, even keep you from a good night’s sleep.
More than 650 adults took part in an online Health eHeart Study where the participants would download an app that tracked their smartphone screen time.
Researchers found the average person spends 38.4 hours on his phone over a 30-day period or about an hour 29 minutes a day.
The participants also told researchers when they went to bed and how they slept.
That information showed that the more screen time a person had, the less likely the person would get a night of quality sleep.
Why that happens wasn’t clear. The cause could either be that the light from the phone makes it harder to doze off or the content from the smartphone might be stressing out the user.
Or it might be that people who have trouble sleeping turn to their smartphones.
Younger people tended to have more screen time than others.
The study was published in PLOS One.
