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A recent study finds that using a cell phone after 9pm may be the cause of poor work ethic the following day.
The Telegraph reports an assistant professor from Michigan State University, Russell Johnson, gathered information from over 200 employees and managers in various fields. Participants filled out several surveys regarding their phone usage, sleeping and work habits over the course of two weeks. The study finds that those who used their devices at night were less productive the next day.
Johnson says, “The night-time use of smartphones appears to have both psychological and physiological effects on people’s ability to sleep and on sleep’s essential recovery functions.”
According to Forbes, the way that cell phones hinder our ability to fall asleep leads to a “hangover effect.” Although many of the messages sent after 9pm are work-related, the timing of these messages shows a correlation to being incompetent in the workplace.
Johnson suggests that more stress should be put on getting the proper amount of sleep rather than late night errands.
“There may be times in which putting off work until the next day would have disastrous consequences and using your smartphone is well worth the negative effects on less important tasks the next day,” he says. “But on many other nights, more sleep may be your best bet.”