Americans Still Won’t Ditch Devices Before Bed

We’ve known about the harmful effects of blue light for years now, but after years of studies 70% of people who understand the harmful effects of blue light, still use their phones before bed anyway.

The devices that we use each day, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the computer at work, are not only distracting, but they can also be harmful to our health, especially when it comes to impacting our sleeping habits.

What is blue light?

Blue light is a high energy, short-wavelength light that is emitted from our electronic devices and has been cited in numerous studies and news reports as being a contributing cause to numerous sleep issues.

How is blue light impacting our sleep?

We recently surveyed 2,000 Americans about their sleep habits to try and find out if people’s knowledge of the effects of blue light are leading to changes in their sleeping habits. We asked a series of questions relating to if people were aware of blue light and how it negatively affects sleep, if they used settings to try and fight blue light, and which devices they used before bed.

Here’s what we learned…

• 60% of the 2,000 surveyed respondents know that blue light is emitted from screens and also negatively affects sleep!
• Even more alarming is that 66% believe that blue light has a negative impact on sleep
• Despite the two statistics above, only 36% of respondents currently use apps/or settings options that help to fight the effects of blue light
• On a positive note, of the 36% of people who are using these apps/settings, over half of them (54%) use them nightly

Most of us know that blue light emitted from our devices are harmful in the hours before bed, but how bad is our nightly exposure?

• 76% of people keep their phone within reach when they go to sleep
• 66% of smartphone users aware of the blue light effects use their devices before bed. There are similar numbers to both computer and tablet users (53%) and TV’s watchers (52%)

Despite all the studies on blue light, nearly 80% of respondents are unable to identify the effects of blue light responsible for their disrupted sleep and continue using devices before bed despite knowing about its adverse effects.

We also asked a series of more general questions that were aimed to learn more about current American sleeping trends.

Here’s what we found…

Are we getting enough sleep?

• 64% of surveyed respondents say no
• On average we are only getting 6.8 hours of sleep per night
• 63% of respondents said they had trouble falling asleep
• 52% of respondents said they feel tired when they wake up from sleeping
• Over two-thirds of respondents say they are concerned about the quality of their sleep

Despite these alarming numbers only 41% of respondents have tried to change their sleep habits in the past six months.

So we’ve learned that Americans on average aren’t getting enough sleep and often feel tired after sleeping, yet a vast majority of them have been slow to change their sleeping habits.

That made us wonder about…

What have you tried to help you sleep?

Listed below are the top remedies American use to try and sleep better:

1. Reading 50%
2. Sexual activity 45%
3. Music or white noise 36% (Women & married couples were most likely to use music or white noise)
4. A warm bath 25%
5. Herbal supplements 18% (Baby boomers were most likely to use herbal supplements)
6. Over-the-counter medicine 16%
7. Mediation 13%
8. Recreational drugs 11% (Millennials and singles were most likely to use this as a sleep aid)
9. Prescription drugs 10% (Men and Gen X were most likely to use prescription drugs as a sleep aid)
10. Yoga 10%

The results of the study show an alarming trend that despite the knowledge around blue light and its harmful effect on our sleep, we continue to prioritize our devices over own health.

See the Blue Light Conundrum Infographic here.