Those who believe that dark or night mode can be useful to sleep better are wrong: the results of a study say anything but.
Bad news for those who use night mode on their smartphones: according to science, it is useless.
The study, published in the journal Sleep Health (which you can read here), was conducted by a team of doctors and researchers from two U.S. institutions, Brigham Young University and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The research involved 167 college students between the ages of 18 and 24; the young people were asked to use their iPhones for a week for at least an hour before falling asleep. During their stay in bed, they were asked to wear an accelerometer on their wrist, useful for recording movements and nocturnal activities before falling asleep and during actual rest. Among the data recorded, the total duration of sleep, the time needed to fall asleep and the quality of rest itself.
Night mode, the research
Divided into three groups, participants were asked to follow some specific rules of behavior in the phase before falling asleep. The methodologies included using the iPhone in Night Shift mode (it activates like this, if you want to try it), with no night mode or no smartphone use in the hour before sleep.
The results showed that there were no particularly significant differences in sleep quality between participants in the three groups. Upon further analysis of the data, however, the scientists reported greater sleep efficiency in participants with sleep cycles greater than 6.8 hours per night who had not used the device before falling asleep. Below 6.8 hours, however, the use – either with night shift or without – or not would not affect the quality of rest, considered in any case lower than those who usually sleep longer.
Night shift mode, the conclusions of the study
According to scientists, therefore, the use of such modes or of the same blue light – long believed to be guilty of a bad influence on circadian rhythms – would not affect in any way the quality of sleep or the ability to fall asleep. What would make the difference, instead, would be the psychological state of the user, destabilized by conversations on social or instant messaging platforms, by reading news or publishing content. Basically, night mode or not, the only way to have a satisfactory sleep is to keep the smartphone away before going to sleep.