睡前刷手机问题不大？研究人员追踪了800个年轻人，结果有点意外

晚上睡觉前刷刷手机，可能已经成为很多年轻人的习惯。有一些研究提醒说，睡前频繁刷手机或许不利于健康，比如刷手机时间长了影响入睡，扰乱正常的睡眠模式和生物钟。还有人担心，睡前刷手机会加重负面情绪。事实上，神经科学家确实通过动物实验发现，夜间增加光照，尤其是蓝光照射——手机等电子设备通常发出蓝光，会影响大脑特定的神经环路，从而诱发抑郁相关的症状。

不过，丹麦哥本哈根大学最近有一项针对年轻人深夜刷手机的研究调查却发现，睡前刷手机对情绪和心理健康的影响可能没有我们想象的严重，或许还能起到一定的积极作用。

研究人员发表在《科学报告》（Scientific Reports）上的论文表示：“与流行的假设相反，睡前使用智能手机与心理健康状况不佳没有密切关系，这可能是因为智能手机的使用也是一种社交行为，对于心理健康有连带的益处。”

这项研究的数据来自对800多名丹麦大学生的追踪调查。研究人员向参与调查的大学生们提供智能手机，并通过其中运行的定制软件获取他们的使用频率，连续收集了四周的数据。

数据显示，16个工作日（每周一晚上到每周四晚上）里，在这些年轻人自我报告的睡眠期间，软件记录到了超过250000次智能手机活动，包括接听电话、发消息、在社交媒体平台上发帖或点赞等。

在调查开始和随访四个月后，研究人员还通过问卷评估了这些年轻人的心理健康状况，包括孤独感、抑郁症状、压力程度、生活满意度等方面。随后，利用统计分析方法排除潜在的混杂因素，研究人员查看了参与者的心理健康状态是否与睡眠期间使用手机有关联。

基线数据显示，相比晚上不刷手机的参与者，由于使用手机而连续睡眠时间少于6小时的参与者，在调查开始时的压力感知和抑郁症状要相对更高一点。但在平均四个月的随访期间，睡觉刷手机与感知压力、孤独感和生活满意感的变化之间并没有明确关联。

研究人员还注意到，与晚上不刷手机的参与者相比，多个晚上刷手机的参与者（尽管比例不高），从基线到随访，抑郁症状甚至出现了小幅下降。

研究推测，这种微弱的变化可能是因为使用手机的这些场景是一种对心理健康有益的社交现象，而对于这项研究的参与者——大学生来说，形成社交网络和参与社会互动对他们的心理健康至关重要，因此尽管晚上刷手机可能扰乱睡眠，社交接触的有益影响可能会抵消一部分负面后果。

研究人员在论文中猜测，根据先前的其他一些研究，比如美国曾对300名智能手机深度用户进行过的一项调查发现，焦虑与刷手机的活动类型有关，例如相比社交互动，获取新闻、娱乐、消费等与焦虑的关联更密切，因此研究团队打算进一步调查睡前刷手机的活动类型是否也对心理健康有不同的影响。

However, a recent study of young people browsing their mobile phones late at night at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark found thatThe effect of browsing your cell phone before going to bed on emotional and mental health may not be as serious as we think, and it may also play a positive role..

The researchers published in the Science report (Scientific ReportsThe paper on) states: "Contrary to popular assumptions, smartphone use before bedtime is not closely related to poor mental health, which may be because smartphone use is also a social behavior, which has associated benefits to mental health."

The data for the study came from a follow-up survey of more than 800 Danish college students. The researchers provided smartphones to college students who took part in the survey, and obtained their usage frequency through the customized software running in them, collecting data for four weeks.

According to the data, during the 16 working days (from Monday night to Thursday night), during the self-reported sleep of these young people, the software recorded more than 250000 smartphone activities, includingAnswer the phone, send a message, post or like on the social media platformWait.

At the beginning of the survey and four months after follow-up, the researchers also assessed the mental health status of these young people through questionnaires, includingLoneliness, depressive symptoms, stress level, life satisfactionAnd so on. Then, using statistical analysis to rule out potential confounding factors, the researchers looked at whether the participants' mental health was associated with cell phone use during sleep.

Baseline data showed that participants who slept less than six hours continuously because of phone use had higher levels of stress perception and depression at the beginning of the survey than those who did not use their cell phones at night. But during an average of four months of follow-up,There is no clear correlation between sleep browsing on mobile phone and changes in perceived stress, loneliness and life satisfaction..

The researchers also noticed thatCompared with participants who did not browse their phones at night, participants who used their phones at several nights (although the proportion was not high) even showed a slight decrease in depressive symptoms from baseline to follow-up..

The study speculates that this faint change may be due to the fact that the use of mobile phones is a social phenomenon that is beneficial to mental health, and for college students, the study participants, the formation of social networks and participation in social interactions are essential to their mental health, so although browsing the phone at night may disrupt sleep, the beneficial effects of social contact may offset some of the negative consequences.

In the paper, the researchers speculated that according to other previous studies, such as a survey of 300 deep smartphone users in the United States, anxiety was related to the type of activity of browsing the phone, such asAccess to news, entertainment, consumption, etc. is more closely related to anxiety than social interaction.So the team plans to further investigate whether the type of activity that browses your phone before going to bed also has a different effect on mental health.