Each Hour on Your Phone in Bed Costs You 24 Minutes of Rest
You know that feeling when you check your phone one last time before bed, only to look up and realize an hour has passed? New research from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health reveals something startling about this nightly ritual: for every hour you spend on your phone in bed, you're losing 24 minutes of actual sleep.
The comprehensive study, published in April 2025, tracked the sleep patterns of over 45,000 students aged 18 to 28. The findings paint a clear picture of how our bedtime screen time directly sabotages our rest. But the real shock isn't just the lost sleep. It's what happens to your risk of developing insomnia.
The Mathematics of Lost Sleep
Dr. Gunnhild Johnsen Hjetland and her team discovered that bedtime phone use follows a predictable pattern. Each hour of screen time in bed correlates with:
24 fewer minutes of sleep
A 63% increase in insomnia risk
Compounding effects with each additional hour
Think about what this means practically. If you typically spend two hours scrolling through your phone before attempting sleep, you're potentially losing 48 minutes of rest while more than doubling your chances of developing chronic sleep problems. For those who spend three hours or more (and research shows many young adults do), the sleep debt becomes even more severe.
Why Your Brain Can't Tell the Difference
One assumption the study challenges is that certain phone activities are "safer" than others before bed. Many people believe reading articles or watching educational content is less disruptive than doom scrolling through social media. The research tells a different story.
"We found no significant differences between social media and other screen activities, suggesting that screen use itself is the key factor in sleep disruption," Dr. Hjetland explains in the study. Whether you're reading news, playing games, watching YouTube, or checking Instagram, the impact on your sleep remains remarkably consistent.
This finding fundamentally changes how we should think about bedtime phone habits. It's not about choosing "better" content. The screen itself is the problem.
The Science Behind Screen-Sleep Interference
While the Norwegian study focused on quantifying sleep loss, previous research helps explain why screens wreak such havoc on our rest:
Blue Light Disruption: Phone screens emit blue wavelength light that suppresses melatonin production. Melatonin is the hormone that tells your body it's time to sleep. When blue light hits your eyes, your brain thinks it's still daytime, making it physically harder to fall asleep.
Cognitive Activation: Beyond light exposure, engaging with any content on your phone activates neural pathways associated with alertness and processing. Your brain needs to wind down before sleep, but screen interaction does the opposite.
The Anticipation Effect: Even when your phone is on silent, your brain remains partially alert, anticipating potential notifications or updates. This psychological state of readiness prevents the deep relaxation necessary for quality sleep.
Direct Time Theft: Perhaps most obviously, every minute spent on your phone is a minute not spent sleeping. When you finally put the device down, you've already lost that time from your sleep window.
Breaking Free from Bedtime Screen Time
Understanding the problem is only the first step. The challenge lies in breaking habits that have become deeply ingrained in our nightly routines. Here's what sleep researchers recommend:
Create a Charging Station Outside Your Bedroom: The most effective solution is often the simplest. When your phone isn't within reach, you eliminate both temptation and the possibility of "just checking" one more thing.
Set a Digital Curfew: Establish a specific time when all screens go off, ideally 30 to 60 minutes before your intended bedtime. This buffer allows your brain to begin its natural preparation for sleep.
Replace Digital Wind-Down with Analog Activities: Instead of scrolling, try reading a physical book, practicing gentle stretches, or writing in a journal. These activities signal to your brain that sleep is approaching without the stimulating effects of screens.
Morning Light Exposure: Getting natural sunlight within 30 minutes of waking helps regulate your circadian rhythm, making it easier to feel sleepy at appropriate times in the evening.
The research is clear: that innocent bedtime scrolling session is anything but harmless. By understanding the true cost of phone use in bed, we can make informed decisions about our nightly routines. After all, those Instagram stories will still be there tomorrow morning, but the sleep you lose tonight is gone forever.
For those ready to reclaim their sleep, tools like ScreenBuddy can help by creating mindful interruptions in your scrolling patterns, giving you that crucial moment to ask: is this screen time worth 24 minutes of my rest?
