Using Your Phone Before Bed Might Be Affecting Your Mental Health

In the society we live in, it seems that everyone has a smartphone. Smartphones serve many functions: we use it to keep in touch with friends and family, visit social networking sites, surf the internet and even play games or listen to music. It seems our whole lives revolve around our phones. This fact is more evident in teenagers. In fact, a survey by the national sleep foundation, found that, more than half of the teens reported electronic media use (i.e. smartphones and other electronic devices) as one of their favourite activities. Over two-thirds reported that their last activity of the day was related to their smartphone use, specifically, during the last hour before going to sleep. Not known by them is that their electronic media use before bed is having an effect on their mental health. In recent years, studies have found that electronic media use before bedtime, is associated with sleep disturbances, and depressive symptoms in teenagers. Despite this, very little research has studied how smartphones have changed teenager’s bedtime routines. Additionally, research is lacking on what mediates the relationship between electronic media use and depressive symptoms in teenagers.

In light of this, a group of researchers set out to investigate whether teenagers who own a smartphone would differ from teenagers who do not, on their electronic media use before sleep. Specifically, they tested the following four hypotheses:


1. Whether owning a smartphone is related to more electronic media use in general and mainly in bed before sleep

2. Whether electronic media use in bed before sleep is related to higher levels of depressive symptoms

3. Whether electronic media use in bed before sleep is related to shorter sleep on weekday nights and/or sleep difficulties on weekday nights 

4. Whether the relationship between electronic media use in bed before sleep and depressive symptoms is partly mediated by sleep duration and/or sleep difficulties. 




To test out their theories, 362 teenagers (ages 12-17) completed questionnaires assessing sleep disturbance (short sleep duration and sleep difficulties) and depressive symptoms. The teenagers answered questions about how often they watched TV or movies, played video games, talked or sent text messages, and how long they spent online. After completing the questionnaires, the teens either received an interventional lesson on sleep hygiene, or general information on sleep related topics. One month later, the participants completed the same questionnaires again. 

Their results showed that teenagers who owned a smartphone, sent a lot more text messages, spent more time on the Internet and on Facebook per day than teenagers who owned conventional mobile phones (i.e. not a smartphone). Furthermore, teenagers who owned a smartphone were more likely to go to bed later than other teenagers who owned a conventional mobile phone. These findings supported their first hypothesis that teenagers with smartphones report more electronic media use while in bed. This implies that the increase availability of new electronic devices drastically affect teenagers’ sleep habits. Secondly, the researchers found that indeed, electronic media use in bed before sleeping was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Thirdly, the results showed that electronic media use in bed before sleep was associated with shorter sleep duration and more sleep difficulties. And lastly, in line with their fourth hypothesis, the authors found that the relationship between electronic media use in bed before sleep and depressive symptoms is partly mediated by sleep duration and/or sleep difficulties. 


This is troubling because instead of having a good night's sleep, teenagers spend the bulk of the time on their phones, which leaves them tired and irritable in the day time while at school, or, anywhere else. Additionally, a proper night's rest is essential to our overall well-being, without proper sleep we would face many serious health concerns. Interestingly, the researchers found that the electronic media use type that was most strongly associated with sleep disturbances and depressive symptoms, was spending time online (e.g., on Facebook and other social networking sites) while lying in the bed before sleep. This suggests that their presence on social media sites is the number one culprit behind the sleep disturbances and depressive symptoms. As if we needed anymore reasons to question the negative influence of social media.

Depression in teenagers is a severe condition with a high chance of reoccurrence in adulthood. As depression rates are drastically increasing during teenage years, and prevalence rates have also been increasing in the past few decades, it is important to offer ways to prevent depression during adolescence. 

The authors recommend the following: As electronic media use before sleep is related to sleep disturbance and depressive symptoms, many teenagers might benefit from improved sleep hygiene by reducing their electronic media use before and at bedtime. They suggest that sleep hygiene education for teenagers be taught in classrooms and parents be informed of the risk and possible ways to reduce teenagers’ electronic media use at night. In addition to sleep hygiene education, the authors recommend that programmers could include specific applications on smartphones that encourage teenagers’ to maintain proper sleep hygiene. For example, it could track the time when teenagers use their smartphones, at what time there is noise in their bedroom, at what time they go to sleep and when they get up, as well as provide reminders when sleep hygiene rules are not followed. Lastly, the authors recommend that school psychologists identify teenagers suffering from excessive electronic media use and a sleep disorder, and referred to treatment, as there is growing evidence that maintaining regular sleep patterns could reduce the occurrence of depression in teenagers. 

Mental health related illnesses are often overlooked, particularly in teenagers, if there is a way to improve anyone's mental well-being, I believe it is in our right to do so.

Primary source:
Lemola, S., Perkinson-Gloor, N., Brand, S., Dewald-Kaufmann, J. F., & Grob, A. (2014). Adolescents’ electronic media use at night, sleep disturbance, and depressive symptoms in the smartphone age. Journal of youth and adolescence, 1-14.

Secondary Source:

National Sleep Foundation. (2011). Sleep in America poll. Exploring connections with communications technology use and sleep. National Sleep Foundation: Washington, DC

Acetaminophen Relieves Pleasure Too

Tylenol is a popular over the counter pain-relieving drug used by the public to diminish physiological pain.  It has become a staple in our society for its efficiency in alleviating headaches quickly. When you offer somebody medication for a headache you may even call it Tylenol when it is actually an Advil or something else, its that widespread.

Tylenol is popular for its pain relief but did you know it also relieves emotional pain as well? Studies on Acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol, have found that as it affects physiological pain it may also be effective in reducing emotional pain and anxiety. This is not necessarily what Tylenol is typically known for, but there is something else it does that is especially unknown to the general public. It dulls your ability to feel pleasure as well.

Researchers showed 40 photographs to 82 participants in their study, which included extremely positive images to the seriously unpleasant. Half of the participants had to take 1000 milligrams of Acetaminophen while the other half took a placebo, where neither the participant or researcher knew who took what. The participants were asked to rate the pictures on scales judging how pleasant or unpleasant the participants thought the pictures were. They were also asked about how emotionally arousing the same pictures were when presented again. Finally, they were asked to judge how blue they perceived the pictures to be, in order to rule out the possibility that taking the medicine dulled all judgment of degree.

The study expanded on previous research by showing that taking Acetaminophen blunted adverse reactions to negative pictures. Similarly, they found that it also diminished positive feelings when viewing positive pictures, as compared to those who took the placebo. On the other hand, it did not affect how blue the participants perceived the pictures to be, showing that it did not have an overall diminishing effect on perceiving magnitudes of all kind. In this case, Acetaminophen dulled both emotions, positive and negative.

The causal mechanisms are up to future research to explore. For now we have an understanding of some psychological side effects of Tylenol use. Tylenol has been around for a long time and these results just came out now, so who knows what other effects may come with the use of many common over the counter drugs; are there long term effects as well? The next time you take a Tylenol for a headache and are not enjoying yourself at the beach as much, it may be because of the medicine you took. 

Durso, G. R., Luttrell, A., & Way, B. M. (2015). Over-the-Counter Relief From Pains and Pleasures Alike Acetaminophen Blunts Evaluation Sensitivity to Both Negative and Positive Stimuli. Psychological Science, 0956797615570366.

"I did it" vs. "It was fate"

“It’s out of my hands”

“I made the decision, and now I have to pay the consequences”

“There’s nothing I could do”

“I did my best”

All of the above statements relate to how a person views the cause of the events around them.  The psychological term that describes this perception is called locus of control.  In its most basic form, the locus of control differentiates if a person primarily believes that they have the ability to control their environment (internal) or if they believe what happens is predetermined by fate, luck, or powerful others (external).

For example, if a person with an internal locus of control got a 95% on an exam, he or she would likely attribute the success to personal factors such as studying or being smart.  If someone with an external locus of control received the same grade, they would credit environmental factors such as the test being easy or the professor needing to bell curve the grades. 

Based on the previous example, it would seem that an internal locus of control is great.  You see yourself as competent, and overall, you are just fantastic! However, this is not always the case.  In the face of a negative situation, for example, if the mark on the test was a 55%, the external locus of control would be much more beneficial to a person’s self-esteem because they would perceive the test as really hard instead of viewing him or herself as unintelligent.

So now that you understand what locus of control is and how it can effect a person, let’s consider how this concept relates to a person’s quality of life, such as their perceptions of meaning in life and well-being. 

A study by Singh and Choudhri (2014) considers how these quality of life factors are experienced by young adults (aged 20-23) based on their individual differences in the previously discussed concept of locus of control.  They surveyed 120 university students, and their results demonstrate that an internal locus of control (“I did it!”) is related to a greater sense of achievement and self-acceptance, stronger interpersonal relationships, and a more avid belief in fair treatment.  This way of thinking was also related to a general positive appraisal of life, greater expectations for success, and the ability to be more supportive in times of crisis. 

All of this information has implications and is interesting, however, it is important to remember that having an internal locus of control has been associated with these quality of life factors. In other words, this study does not tell us that viewing yourself as the controlling factor for events will increase your quality of life, but rather that the two have been seen as related in research settings.  The important message from all of this is that the way that you frame situations in your mind is related to how you experience the events in your life, and just remember, YOU CAN DO IT!  

Primary Source: 

Singh, T., & Choudhri, N. (2014).  Early adulthood: The role of locus of control, meaning of life, and subjective well-being. Journal of Psychsocial Research, 9, 131-139. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1562147181?accountid=15115

Secondary Source: 

Shojaee, M., & French, C. (2014).  The relationship between mental health components and locus of control in youth.  Psychology, 5, 966-978. doi: 10.4236/psych.2014.58107.