Six million Brits admit they sleep with their mobile phone, a new study has revealed. Research suggests that one fifth of the nation keep their phone in their bed, or even under their pillow, every single night to ensure they don’t miss a single text message or email.
Such is the nation’s obsession with their smartphone that half of the 2,000 adults questioned in 2013 admit that looking at their phone is the very last thing they do in the evening, and the first thing they do when they wake.
The mobile phone has now become such a regular fixture in our bedtime routine that it takes until 10:58pm for the average Brit to relinquish their device.
Mark Fells Director of Digital at Premier Inn, who conducted the survey of 2,000 adults, said,
“In the last five years owning a smartphone has become common place for most adults, and we all love the freedom and accessibility that technology allows us to have.
“However, with almost half of those surveyed struggling to take their mind off what they have read on their mobile, and a huge 69% receiving late night e-mails and text messages from work colleagues and their boss, it appears we need to learn to ‘switch off’ when it comes to our bedtime routines.”
Worryingly, one in five admit to regularly waking in the morning with their smartphone still glued to their hand, and a third claim they have ditched reading books in bed in favour of browsing the internet, social networking and catching up on work emails instead.
ALSO READ: Six ways to get a better night’s sleep
A social media savvy 20% bid a virtual ‘goodnight’ to their friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter when tucked up in bed, with a further 8% acknowledging they are more likely to say goodnight to their online pals than their own partners that sleep by their side.
Although the nation may be smitten with their smartphones, the addiction to mobile technology appears to be having an adverse effect on love lives, with one in five Brits admitting they frequently row with their partner over how much time they spend on their phone while in bed.
Almost one in three deemed using a mobile in bed anti-social.
