How taking breaks from your smartphone improves your mental health

Taking a break from your smartphone could improve your mental health.

Researchers found earlier this month that reducing the time spent on a smartphone to access the internet makes people happier and more focused. And it seems like just reducing screen time through smartphones - not all electronics - improved the mental health of those in the study.

“Phones can have small, often hidden, costs for well-being that can nonetheless add up over time,” Georgetown University’s assistant professor of psychology Kostadin Kushlev told the university.

On average, Americans spend nearly five hours a day using their smartphones.

But, when researchers asked people in a study to stop using the internet on the phone, many found it difficult. Those who did, however, found vast improvements compared to those who were glued to their devices.

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In the study, the researchers recruited 467 people between the ages of 18 and 74 to participate.

Roughly 260 installed an app on their phones that blocked all access to the internet there for two weeks. They were still allowed to go online - just not on their smartphones. Half of the participants had their phones blocked for the first two weeks, and the other half functioned as a control group before switching treatments for the second two weeks of the month-long trial.

“We didn’t block texting or phone calls,” Adrian Ward, a psychologist and professor at the University of Texas, told WPIX 11, “so people could still talk to loved ones from anywhere at any time.”

Those participating in the experiment found it to be difficult as only 119 had the block active for at least 10 days, reducing their average screen time from 314 minutes a day to just 161 minutes.

Those who completed the challenge reaped the rewards, with significant improvements in subjective wellbeing, mental health and objectively measured sustained attention ability. The change in sustained attention ability was equivalent to erasing 10 years of age-related decline and the improvement in symptoms of depression was larger than the average effect of pharmaceutical antidepressants, the authors noted.

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Notably, for those who blocked the internet for the first two weeks, their subjective wellbeing and mental health remained significantly higher at the four-week mark, even after two weeks of being back online.

The authors say this is due to the multiple positive effects of disconnection: increased time offline, decreased time consuming media, increased social connectedness, more sleep, and improved feelings of self-control.

Even people who failed to stay off the internet saw benefits in all of the areas they had measured.

The findings come on the heels of previous research that highlighted the negative impacts of smartphone use, tying it to depression and anxiety,

“Our research,” Ward said, “suggests that any sort of reduction is going to be positive for us.”