The Daily News – July 7, 2025

We all know that doom scrolling before bed is bad, but could it be giving you insomnia? Well, a team of researchers in Norway surveyed more than 45,000 young adults and found that for every hour spent on a screen in bed, sleep dropped by 24 minutes, and the risk of insomnia jumped up by 59%. Even more surprising, it didn’t matter what you were doing on your device, whether it was watching a show, uh, scrolling on social media, or even listening to music, every type of screen activity was linked to worse sleep. The study’s senior authors said this, “reductions in sleep over time can contribute to cumulative sleep debt, increasing the risk of fatigue, impaired cognitive function, and poor mental health”. While this study is focused on university students, experts believe the findings apply to adults of all ages. And even though the research doesn’t prove that screens directly cause sleep issues, the evidence for a connection is growing. For example, one sleep expert said this, “the evidence is becoming more and more clear that there are certainly causal impacts of screen use on bedtime through time displacement, through emotional stimulation and engagement with the media”. Another specialist pointed out the cycle that many people fall into. You’re anxious about not sleeping, so you grab your phone, but that only keeps your brain more alert and makes it even harder to drift off. So what can you do? Well, here’s a few suggestions from some experts. Try charging your phone outside of the bedroom. Maybe use an alarm clock. Remember those and finding screen free ways to relax, like reading, listening to music or drinking tea. And if all of that seems too difficult to sustain one sleep expert quoted in the article said, in essence, if you do use screens at night, avoid using them in bed. He claims that making that small change alone can minimize the impact of screens and help build a healthier sleep routine. So if you happen to find this information helpful, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell for more updates. And as always, thank you so much for joining us on the Daily News.