Smartphone gives us the flexibility to work on the move, and makes us available round the clock. This is the positive side, now the negative. A new study by Michigan University has concluded smartphone study use at night affects productivity the following day. Even if we are talking about using your smartphone for an hour in the night, it degrades your entire 8 hours the next day.
Russell Johnson, a business scholar along with his colleagues have found out that workers using smartphones after 9PM were inefficient the following day due to fatigue.
The first study was conducted on US workers from varied segments – healthcare, manufacturing, IT, financial and nursing. A second on 82 members of upper management. They were asked to complete surveys every day for two weeks.
The outcome from both the surveys pointed to one thing. Those who used smartphones at night lost sleep and this translated into energy sap the following day. The first study also determined that other gadgets like TV, laptop and tablets had minimal negative effect when compared to smartphones.
What is so special about smartphones that acts like krypton to humans after 9PM?
Johnson has an answer for it. He says that smartphones emit blue light which is disruptive in nature. The blue light is known to hinder melatonin, a chemical in our body that puts us to sleep.
Johnson said – “Smartphones are almost perfectly designed to disrupt sleep. Because they keep us mentally engaged late into the evening, they make it hard to detach from work so we can relax and fall asleep.”
“The nighttime use of smartphones appears to have both psychological and physiological effects on people’s ability to sleep and on sleep’s essential recovery functions.”
So, is it practical to turn off our smartphones after 9PM?
It may be possible that not checking mails in the night could be more disastrous than being 75% of yourself the following day. The debate leans from one side to another depending on the person we are referring to. To be on the safer side, if you have an important meeting coming up the following day or a client visit, consciously keep your smartphone away until you wake up the following morning.
