Sleepless and Depressed? Too Much Screen Time Might Be to Blame

Too much screen time? Watch out! Your screen time could be stealing your sleep and happiness.

Too much screen time harms teens' sleep, raising the risk of depression, especially in girls, according to a new study. The findings of the study are published in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Sebastian Hökby of Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and colleagues ().

Longer Screen Time Equals Sleeplessness and Depression Among Teens
Unregulated use of social media in the night time can give rise to sleeplessness and depressive symptoms among the teenagers finds a new study.

‘Did You Know?
Spending no more than 2-3 hours of leisure screen time a day helps keep sleepless nights and depression away. #screentime #sleepproblems #depression #medindia ’

Scroll Less, Sleep More: Sweden Recommends Screen Time Limits for Teen Health

Recently, the Swedish Public Health Agency published recommendations that adolescents use no more than two-to-three hours of daily leisure screen time, partly to promote better sleep. Previous studies have suggested associations between screen time, sleep disruptions, and depression in teens. However, sleep problems and depression often coincide, and the direction of these associations has been unclear.

In the new study, researchers tracked 4,810 Swedish students aged 12-16, collecting data on sleep quality and quantity, depressive symptoms, and screen usage at three timepoints over the course of a year.

Screen Time in Bed: A Recipe for Sleepless Nights
Screen time in bed is linked to insomnia and reduced sleep time, with no difference between social media and other screen activities.

More Screen Time, Less Sleep

The researchers found that increased screen time led to deteriorated sleep within three months, impacting both the duration and quality of sleep. Screen time was also found to postpone sleep times towards later hours – disrupting multiple aspects of the human sleep-wake cycle at once.

Screen Time Overload: Are We Losing Hours to Technology?
Engaging in activities like gaming, social media, or endless scrolling, often feels like wasting hours mindlessly, mandating for control over it.

Excessive Screen Time Increases Depression Risk in Teen Girls

Among boys, screen time had a direct adverse effect on depression after twelve months, while among girls the depressive effect was mediated through sleep disturbances. Sleep could explain about half (38%-57%) of the association between screen time and depression in girls. Boys who spent more time on screens also experienced sleep disruptions, but these were not strongly associated to later depression.

Scroll More, Sleep Less, Feel Worse: The Teen Mental Health Trap The authors summarize: “In this study, we found that adolescents who reported longer screen times also developed poorer sleep habits over time. In turn, this led to increased depression levels, especially among girls.”

Social Media, TV Addiction May Up Depression Risk among Teens
Teens who spend more time on social media and sit in front of the television (TV) for long hours are at a higher risk of developing depression, reveals a new study.

Fix Healthy Screen Habits

They add: “Our results do suggest that less screen time seems healthier, in line with previous World Health Organization statements…if screen times were somehow reduced, for example through public health policies, our results imply that the high burden of depressive states among young Swedish women, and maybe young men, would likely decrease.”

References:

Adolescents’ screen time displaces multiple sleep pathways and elevates depressive symptoms over twelve months - (https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0004262)

Source-PLOS