Night Shift’s Impact on Sleep Quality
In this study, BYU psychology professor Chad Jensen and researchers from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center compared the sleep results of 167 adults aged 18 to 24. The participants spent at least eight hours in bed and wore an accelerometer on their wrists to record sleep activity. They conducted the study in three categories – phone users with Night Shift, without NightShift, and those who didn’t use the phone before bed. “In the whole sample, there were no differences across the three groups. Night Shift is not superior to using your phone without Night Shift or even using no phone at all,” said Jensen. The study considered various factors including overall sleep duration, sleep quality, wake after sleep onset, and the time to fall asleep. The researchers further split the categories into two separate groups – one with participants getting seven hours of sleep and another with six hours. From the first set, the researchers noticed that the participants who didn’t use the phone at night experienced superior sleep quality when compared to others who used the phone, regardless of whether they had Night Shift switched on. Furthermore, there were no differences in sleep outcomes depending on the use of Night Shift in the group that got 6 hours of sleep. “While there is a lot of evidence suggesting that blue light increases alertness and makes it more difficult to fall asleep, it is important to think about what portion of that stimulation is light emission versus other cognitive and psychological stimulations,” Jensen added.
