Technology Use Before Bedtime: It's Complex | Psychology Today

Updated March 17, 2025 | Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer Ph.D.

By Lisa Medalie, PsyD, RPGST, DBSM, and Stori Stefanac, CNA

Technology engagement is stronger than ever, and insomnia is more prevalent than ever. As an insomnia specialist, I’d love to tell everyone that, as the relationship between humans and technology grows, removing blue light before bedtime will fix everything, but we’ve seen that it’s far more complex. In this post, we’ll go beyond the surface-level advice—turn your devices off an hour before bedtime—that everyone has heard by now. Instead, we’ll explore the complexities of:

Considering the latest research and what truly matters, it’s essential to help the public understand: Your choices leading up to bedtime are complex. To achieve adequate sleep duration, it’s not enough to simply block blue light or wear a wearable device.

In the past several months, there has been an increase in engagement with AI. With the relationship between humans and technology growing, we need to get proactive in setting stronger boundaries, and watching out for new technology-addiction patterns. Marketers and developers prioritizing “engagement” as a success metric have made it extremely challenging for users to turn off devices. The more engaging technology becomes, the harder it is for humans to choose sleep - especially when decision-making is impaired due to sleepiness.

Generative AI, like ChatGPT, compounds this issue. The human-like quality of interactions is supportive, and even fills needs for connection — which is great during the day, but problematic near bedtime. Using generative AI close to bedtime can make it even harder to choose sleep.

While we still educate our patients about the relationship between blue light and melatonin, lately our discussions with patients about screens and bedtime is focused on the deeper behavioral and dependency pattern principles.

Different strokes for different folks!

Not everyone needs to attend to the rules related to turning off devices before bedtime! The most common groups of people that should focus on these changes include:

If you don't have one of these 3 problems, you don't necessarily need to worry about whether you are using devices before bedtime! For example - if you fall asleep within 10min, you're not a night owl, and you don't feel tired during the day/feel sleep deprived, turning off devices before bedtime will likely not move the needle in your health profile.

In the big picture of your health and wellness goals - remember to prioritize the most important changes. Focus on what changes matter the most to reduce the most bothersome symptoms in your daily life.

References

The influence of blue light on sleep, performance and wellbeing in young adults: A systematic review - PMC

Two hours of evening reading on a self-luminous tablet vs. reading a physical book does not alter sleep after daytime bright light exposure - ScienceDirect

Associations between adolescent sleep difficulties and active versus passive screen time across 38 countries - ScienceDirect

Smartphone screen time reduction improves mental health: a randomized controlled trial - PubMed

A randomized controlled trial of a behavioral intervention for decreasing bedtime procrastination using a wait-list control group in a non-clinical sample of young adults - PubMed

Americans’ views of artificial intelligence | Pew Research Center