The adverse impact of excessive smartphone screen-time on sleep quality among young adults: A prospective cohort

INTRODUCTION: Problematic over usage of smartphones has led to various deteriorating effects including poor sleep quality. Screen exposure, especially near bedtime, directly leads to poor sleep quality. We aimed to measure smartphone screen-time (ST) statistics of the participants directly using a smartphone application. Furthermore, we aimed to assess sleep quality using the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), and to investigate the association between ST & PSQI. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This descriptive cohort study was conducted among 280 students of MBBS at Rawalpindi Medical University for a period of 1 month (30 days). Physically healthy students who owned Android smartphones were included in the study. Students with diagnosed sleep disorders and students taking sleep medication were excluded from the study. ST was recorded using a smartphone application. Sleep quality was assessed at the end of 30 days using the PSQI questionnaire. Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS v23.0. RESULTS: Total and mean ST were calculated for every participant. The mean screen time of 242 individuals was 147.50±51.09 hours. The mean PSQI score was 6.68±2.3. 65.70% of the participants had a poor sleep quality (PSQI>5). Pearson’s correlation revealed that long total ST was associated with decreased sleep quality (R=0.356, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our findings are in accordance with previous scientific literature largely based on self-reported ST measurements and affirm that excessive ST deteriorates sleep quality and hence has numerous adverse physical and psychological manifestations.