Night phone use makes teenagers depressed

​Sydney: Late night mobile phone use has devastating effects on teenagers' mental health, a study by Australian researchers at Murdoch and Griffith Universities said.

Funded by the Australian Research Council, the world's first long-term assessment of adolescent mental health regarding late night mobile phone usage examined students' quality of sleep, along with mood, aggression, coping skills, self esteem and whether they experienced any symptoms of depression, Xinhua news agency reported.

The process was conducted as an annual survey over four years and included 1,100 students from 29 schools.

When the subjects began the process, they were in Class 8 of High School. When the programme concluded, they had hit Class 11.

The questionnaires focused on what time of the night students continued to receive or send text messages and phone calls.

"We found that late night phone use directly contributed to poor sleep habits, which over time led to declines in overall wellbeing and mental health," lead researcher Lynette Vernon said.

"We have demonstrated how poor sleep is the key link connecting an increase in night-time mobile use with subsequent increases in psychosocial issues."

According to Mark Levi, a Sydney-based sleep doctor, the scientific reason why mobile phones can have such a negative influence on sleeping patterns is due to the unnatural light they produce.

"Blue light in your bedroom retards your sleeping, it affects your hormones, it affects your melatonin secretions, your insulin secretions, it affects a lot of balance in the body," Levi told Xinhua on Tuesday.