A study refutes common advice about using the phone right before bed

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Health experts say that we should not use phones right before bed because they may make us insomniac, but a new study claims that there is no scientific basis for this advice.

The research team explains that there is no clear evidence that exposing our eyes to blue light emitted from the screen affects sleep or makes it more difficult.

Study leader Michael Gradisar, a clinical psychologist and sleep expert at Flinders University in Australia, conducted a review of 11 studies that looked at the relationship between smartphone light and sleep, but found no significant cause and effect.

He told The Times: “There is no evidence from 11 studies conducted around the world that screen light makes sleep more difficult. If we look at all the factors that can harm our sleep, we will find that the role of screens is exaggerated.”

One such study, conducted about a decade ago, found that using a phone before bedtime delayed falling asleep by 10 minutes.

“One has to ask, does 10 minutes really make a difference?” Gradisar explained.

He confirms that smartphones interfere with sleep because we cannot put them down and stay away from them (as a result of addiction), adding that browsing emails right before sleep is “a really bad idea.”

This is echoed by Professor Russell Foster, professor of neuroscience at the University of Oxford, who agrees that “there is no evidence that blue lights emitted from screens (which are said to inhibit the body’s secretion of melatonin, the hormone that makes us sleepy) have any significant effect at all.” ".