Screen devices have been increasingly popular in the past two decades. Their quick evolution and increasing multifunctionality make understanding their influence on lives and wellbeing difficult. Some research shows the negative effects screen use can have on mental and physical health, especially at bedtime when sleep is more affected. However, there is a lack of research on people’s thoughts and beliefs of young adults’ bedtime screen device use.
A mixed methods approach was used to explore the perceptions and opinions of young adults’ bedtime screen device use. The first part involved an interview about the participant’s bedtime screen device behaviour, their perceptions of their screen devices, whether they have tried to reduce their use and their opinions on interventions to aid in reducing their use. The second part involved a questionnaire based on the themes and results found in the interviews.
The results of both the interview and the questionnaire found that many of the participants perceived themselves to be a “heavy user” of their bedtime screen devices with some participants stating in the interview that they frequently use their smartphones at bedtime. Despite this, the participants viewed their smartphones use as more harmful at bedtime than beneficial. Further analysis showed that this may explain participants attempt to reduce their bedtime screen device use. However, both the interview and the questionnaire showed that participants found it difficult to stay off their smartphones at bedtime with some participants using their phones to help them sleep. In terms of interventions, there was a mixture of results between the interview and the questionnaire. However, they both suggested that finding a distraction activity to reduce their bedtime screen device use was an effective intervention.
The results of our study suggest that more information on guidance and interventions need to be available to aid people to reduce their bedtime screen use. As this is the first mixed methods study to look at this, the responses and conclusion drawn will be able to aid in developing guidance for adults and children who do want to reduce their use at bedtime.
Keywords: bedtime screen use, screen time, sleep, behaviours, barriers, reducing use, interventions.
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