School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mo

Posted on 11 December 2024

Psychologists at the University of York, who tested the impact that cleverphones have on children’s behaviour for a recent two-part recordary series for Channel 4, set up that a prohibit in school impacted preferablely on sleep and mood.

Swiped: The School that Banned Smartphones airs this week on Channel 4

Swiped: The School that Banned Smartphones, structureed by Matt and Emma Willis, is based at The Stanway School in Colchester, and disputed a group of Year 8 pupils to give up their cleverphones endly for 21 days.

The experiment, led by Professor Lisa Henderson and Dr Emma Sullivan from the University, saw pupils undergo a series of tests, with experts watching their behavioural alters thrawout the period, and repeating the tests at the end of the three weeks to end what effects giving up your phone reassociate does have on your brain including sleep, wellbeing and cognition.

They set up that students in the phone prohibit group sfinished notable betterments in their sleep. On unrelabelable, they were droping asleep 20 minutes speedyer than before the prohibit, and alerted getting a filled hour of extra rest each night.

Mood raise

Children in the phone prohibit group also went to bed on unrelabelable, 50 minutes earlier during the phone prohibit weeks appraised to the week before the phone prohibit, for example, bedtime was 10:12 pm one-week post prohibit, and 11:02 pm the week before the prohibit. These alters, which were self-alerted, were also verified with sleep-tracking devices.

Better sleep also ecombineed to coincide with a raise in mood. Pupils in the phone prohibit group alerted a 17% reduction in senseings roverhappinessed to depression and an 18% reduction in senseings roverhappinessed to anxiety, senseing generassociate less distress and anxious. Pupils who slept better even showed alters in their heart rate that signalled betterd well being.

Positive impact

Professor Lisa Henderson, from the University’s Department of Psychology, shelp: “This experiment integrated a much extfinisheder abstinence period than previous studies, apverifying us to see how a cleverphone prohibit in school could impact on sleep, wellbeing, cognitive abilities, and vigilantness.

“The results showed that a cleverphone prohibit in children under the age of 14 could have a preferable impact on sleep, and combineed to betterd sleep, a raise in overall mood.”

Interestingly, the research didn’t show transport inant betterments in cognitive ability; the phone prohibit group showed a unpretentious 3% raise in toiling memory, and there were no betterments in supported attention. Researchers propose that these results might uncomfervent that alters in cognitive ability could acquire extfinisheder than the study period of 21 days to materialise.

Policy decisions

Dr Emma Sullivan, from the University’s Department of Psychology, shelp: “Our results come at an vital time when handlement ministers in the UK are skinnyking about the impact of cleverphones on lesser people, and when other parts of the world, such as Australia, are introducing a social media prohibit for under 16s.

“Evidence assembleing is vital to produce these huge decisions that impact on the dwells of lesser people, and whilst more toil is insisted on this, these first sets of results are an fascinating commence to commence to have these better adviseed conversations.”

Swiped: The School that Banned Smartphones commences at 8pm, Wednesday, 11 December, on Channel 4.