This research challenges the assumption that screens are always harmful to sleep. Digital media may either displace rest or help people relax, depending on how it is used. A new research app combines sleep tracking, smartphone activity, and daily self-reports to investigate real-world relationships between media use and sleep.

This study examined more than 2,000 adolescents to explore how habitual smartphone use affects attention. While frequent habitual use predicted poorer attention regulation, smartphones also fulfilled psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, which partially protected against these effects, suggesting that how adolescents use smartphones matters as much as how often.