Smartphone Use At Night Results In Poor Sleep, Hurts Workplace Productivity

Using a Smartphone to cram in more work or to engage in communication with friends at night could result in poor sleep and less productivity the next day, according to a new study Forbes reported.

Researchers at Michigan State University people who monitored their phones for business or social purposes were more tired and were less engaged at work the following day.

"Smartphones are almost perfectly designed to disrupt sleep," Russell Johnson, MSU assistant professor of management who acknowledges keeping his smartphone at his bedside at night. "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."

For the first part of the study, researchers had 82 mid- and high-level managers in the Midwest fill out a survey twice a day. The second study surveyed 161 employees daily in a variety of occupations - from nursing to manufacturing and from accounting to dentistry, according to a press release.

Based on the results, nighttime smartphone usage for business purposes cut into sleep and sapped worker's energy the following say at work. The second study, which compared smartphone usage to other electronic devices, found that smartphones had a larger negative effect than watching television and using laptop and tablet computers, according to a press release.

Researchers also found that smarphones emit "blue light" which is known to hinder melatonin, a chemical in the body that promotes sleep.

"So it can be a double-edged sword," Johnson said. "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."

Researchers said a potential solution is turning off smartphones at night.

"There may be times in which putting off work until the next day would have disastrous consequences and using your smartphone is well worth the negative effects on less important tasks the next day," Johnson said. "But on many other nights, more sleep may be your best bet."