Late Night Smartphone Use Affects Productivity

Research suggests that you should put away your smartphone at the end of the work day in order to be more productive the following day.

Michigan State University business scholar, Russell Johnson and colleagues discovered that workers that tried to continue working on their smartphone past 9:00 p.m. were more worn out and less engaged during the following work day.

"Smartphones are almost perfectly designed to disrupt sleep," said Johnson, MSU assistant professor of management who acknowledges keeping his smartphone at his bedside at night. "Because they keep us mentally engaged late into the evening, they make it hard to detach from work so we can relax and fall asleep."

According to research, at least 50% of U.S. adults own a smartphone.  Many of them consider their phones to be critical workforce productivity tools; however the National Sleep Foundation indicates that only 40% of Americans get enough sleep on most nights.  Likewise, much of the self-reported data suggests that the lack of sleep can be attributed to smartphone usage for work. 

To study this phenomenon, researchers asked 82 upper-level managers to complete multiple surveys daily for two weeks.  They also surveyed 161 employees daily in a variety of occupations, such as nursing, manufacturing and dentistry etc.

All workers from all occupations indicated in their surveys that smartphone use for business purposes affected their sleep and drained their energy the following work day. The study also noted that smartphones more negatively impacted workers than watching television or using laptops and tablet computers.

“In addition to keeping people mentally engaged at night, smartphones emit "blue light" that seems to be the most disruptive of all colors of light. Blue light is known to hinder melatonin, a chemical in the body that promotes sleep.”

It seems that smartphone use late at night impacts the amount and quality of sleep we get, which affects our attention and abilities the following day.  That being said, this small study may be reason enough to turn that phone off after 9:00 p.m. to see how it might benefit us physiologically and psychologically.

Nighttime Smartphone Use Zaps Workers' Energy

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Family Day: Ontario's New Stat Holiday

Today is Ontario’s first statutory holiday which celebrates the family. Our Premier Dalton McGuinty officially introduced this holiday after some 20 years of anticipating another day off. In our society work consumes a large majority of our time and energy.

In a time of constant change and the advent of newer technology which supposedly makes our lives easier, one would think that there would be much more time for family, however this is not the case at all. There is a huge pressure on workers to climb the corporate ladder and earn more money not only to survive but to make sure our family survives well. In 2005, Statistics Canada found that 40% of stressed out men and women attributed their strain to work pressures and the next 10% attributed their source of stress to money struggles.

Although, the province of Alberta has been profiting from this holiday for nearly 20 years now, many people, especially those who aren’t able to benefit from the time off, disagree with the introduction of this new holiday. A single day off means a few hours of work lost, however this doesn’t have to imply a loss in productivity. This leave allows workers the time to revitalize and de-stress in order to better cope with tomorrow. In actuality, the break may not only sustain productivity, but manage to improve it. This day represents a long overdue concern for our society’s mental health and if we’re fortunate enough we can even spend it with family.

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The Smell of Sadness

The University of Tel Aviv has discovered a link between depression and a biological mechanism that affects the olfactory glands in women. Professor Yehuda Shoenfeld of the Faculty of Medicine implies that women who are depressed are simultaneously losing their sense of smell and as a result are wearing more perfume.

This discovery appears to have been derived from research that implies a biological basis for depression found in lupus patients.

In lupus patients and those with other autoimmune diseases, a particle known as an autoantibody attacks the person’s own immune system, appearing in the human body as an aberrant reaction to autoimmune diseases. This particle is a real novelty, says Prof. Shoenfeld. We have found that, when generated, it weakens a person’s sense of smell and can induce the feeling of depression. - article

The research seems to suggest that you can identify those who are depressed simply by the quantity of perfume that they wear. It also provides further evidence for the therapeutic benefits of aromatherapy.

In addition, I would be curious to see how this might affect office policy in many organizations that request to keep perfume and other scents to a minimum. If this study were to materialize into accepted theory, the ban on scented products in the workplace would not only disguise potentially depressed women, but prevent healthy emotional well-being of women by limiting the use of aromatherapy.

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Feeling Bitter?

Feeling like you’re in a state of persistent unhappiness brought on by a recent string of negative life events? You could be suffering from a new reactive disorder called Post Traumatic Embitterment Disorder (PTED); a disorder that has been introduced as a subtype of adjustment disorders.

Conceptually, this disorder is similar to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) however; the symptoms are not caused by severely traumatic life events. The manifestation of this disorder is through prolonged embitterment, severe psychopathological symptoms and great impairment in most areas of life in reaction to a severe negative, but non-threatening life event. PTED is characterized by experiences of injustice, violation of basic beliefs, embitterment and intrusions. Most often this disorder is due to situations that force people to cope with major life changes, such as death, loss of employment, sickness etc.

The symptoms of PTED can be very severe, chronic, life-threatening, and hard to treat. It seems that this disorder may be gaining in popularity with our increasingly stressed out society. For more info on current research check out: Posttraumatic Embitterment Disorder in Comparison to Other Mental Disorders by Michael Linden, Kai Baumann, Max Rotter, Barbara Schippan.

Abstract

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FeelingBetterNow.com

This website diagnoses and recommends a specified treatment of nine major mental disorders, from depression to post-traumatic stress disorder. It was designed by Dr. Sam Ozersky and other leading mental health experts that form Mensante Corp. This website that has been around since January 2006 diagnoses, treats, and follows up when a risk of mental illness is detected from answers to an online survey. It seems to be designed for the workforce. The site is actually endorsed by the Canadian College of Family Physicians.

This seems like yet another desperate attempt at making psychology the science that it will never be. Although the idea is similar to the administration of psychological inventories it lacks a very important element, namely professional interpretation and explanation. Besides the fact that this puts many well-educated professionals out of work, the job would be placed in the hands of those seriously lacking in experience. Also, what about computer error? After putting so much effort into studies and work in the field, I could never support or put any faith in such an invention unless it is used with extreme caution. I suppose it could prove to be valuable for some when used as a "guide", but it will hardly replace any existing practices. The fact that it might provide comprehensive information in one place may be it's best feature.

Of course, the greatest benefits are most likely to be seen in the money saved due to increased productivity and decreased payouts in disability claims because in the end that is the real aim of this approach is it not?

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