Screens Get Blamed For Destroying Modern Sleep

The Measured Evidence Differs By Age Group

Adult Sleep Shows No Clear Decline Across Fifty Years

Teenage Sleep Did Decline And The Records Agree On It

Short Sleep Among Teenagers Rose Sharply From 2012 To 2015

Smartphone Ownership Was Climbing Fast Across Those Same Years

Timing Alone Does Not Establish A Cause

This Part Covers What Separates The Two Groups

THIS NEWSLETTER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. NOTHING IN THIS CONTENT CONSTITUTES MEDICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, OR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. ALWAYS CONSULT A QUALIFIED HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY HEALTH RELATED DECISIONS.

OKAY BACK FROM THE BEDROOM SCREEN 🌙

Self Reported Adult Sleep Did Fall Slightly

National Health Survey Figures Dropped Ten To Fifteen Minutes

That Decline Covers The Years 1985 To 2012

The Six Hour Group Rose From Twenty Two To Twenty Nine Percent

Self Report Is The Weakest Instrument Available

People Estimate Their Own Sleep Badly

Objective Recordings Show Something Else

One Review Covered Fifty Years Of Wrist And Laboratory Data

It Found No Change In Total Sleep Time

Time Use Diaries Across Thirty One Years Found No Clear Rise

An International Comparison Covered Fifteen Countries

Sleep Rose In Seven Of Them

Six Fell And Two Were Mixed

A Worldwide Sleep Decline Does Not Appear In Those Numbers

The Popular Claim Comes Mostly From Surveys

Objective Measurement Does Not Reproduce It

That Does Not Mean Adults Sleep Enough

Roughly A Third Report Under Seven Hours Now

The Level Is A Problem Even Without A Trend

Those Are Two Different Arguments

American Adolescent Sleep Was Tracked From 1991

Every Demographic Group Declined Over That Period

Fifteen Year Olds Showed The Largest Drop

Seventy Two Percent Got Seven Hours Or More In 1991

Sixty Three Percent Did By 2012

Short Sleeping Teens Rose Twenty Two Percent After 2012

That Increase Took Only Three Years

Pew Recorded Forty Five Percent Ownership In September 2012

Fifty Six Percent Owned One By The Middle Of 2013

Five Hours Online Daily Raised Short Sleep Risk By Half

Three Hours Raised It By Nearly A Fifth

The Association Was Stronger For Portable Devices Than Televisions

A Phone Goes Into The Bed

Desktop Computers Never Did

Correlation Is What Those Studies Established

The Obvious Competing Explanations Were Checked

Homework Time And Paid Work Held Steady Or Fell

Television Watching Did The Same

Screen Time Was The One Input That Rose

That Still Leaves Causation Unproven

The Timing Is The Strongest Part Of The Argument

Sleep Loss Has A Measured Economic Cost

RAND Europe Published The Estimate In 2016

American Losses Came To Four Hundred Eleven Billion Dollars

That Equals Two Point Two Eight Percent Of National Output

The Figure Counts Absence And Reduced Output At Work

One Point Two Million American Working Days Are Lost Yearly

Four Other Countries Showed The Same Pattern

Those Models Have Wide Uncertainty Bands

The Direction Is More Certain Than The Exact Figures

Some Of Those Lost Hours Are Not A Choice

Shift Workers Do Not Pick When They Sleep

Night Schedules Require Being Awake When The Body Expects Sleep

Warehouse And Delivery Work Expanded On Those Schedules

Second Jobs Take The Same Hours

Remote Work Removed The Commute Between Work And Home

Work Hours And Home Hours Became Harder To Separate

Sleep Gets Framed As A Personal Discipline Problem

Many Of Those Inputs Are Outside Personal Control

The Framing Puts The Fix On The Individual