Abstract
Background: Smartphones are not just used for phone calls and text messaging, but also provide internet access to multimedia through social networks, videogames and Global Positioning System navigation.
Objectives: To assess extent of mobile phone use, and its possible impact on patterns of sleep quality disturbance among the general population.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among a sample of the general adult population aged >18 years, recruited from large malls in Abha City, Aseer Region, Saudi Arabia between January to December, 2020. Two data collection tools were employed in this study, i.e., the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS) to assess smartphone addiction and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to measure the quality and patterns of sleep.
Results: The study included 475 participants. Their age ranged between 18 and 60 years with a mean +/- SD of 28.1 +/- 8.4 years. Males represented 51.2% of them. The majority (83.8%) reported using a smartphone mainly in social media (48.8%) and considered themselves smartphone addicts. The overall smartphone addiction scale score ranged between 37 and 161 (out of 165) with a mean +/- SD of 100.2 +/- 21.4. Highest scores were reported among those using smartphone for playing games (p=0.003). There was a significant negative correlation between participants' age and their smartphone addiction scale scores (r=-0.112, p=0.015). Overall, poor sleep quality, based on PSQI was observed among 93.7% of participants. Smartphone addiction scale score was significantly associated with subjective sleep quality (p<0.001), sleep latency (p<0.001), sleep duration (p=0.001), habitual sleep efficiency (p=0.029), daytime sleep dysfunction (p<0.001) and overall sleep quality (p=0.001).
Conclusion: Smartphone addiction is an evident problem among our population, particularly younger people. Smartphone addiction is associated with long sleep latency, shorter sleep duration, lower sleep efficiency, higher daytime sleep dysfunction and overall poor sleep quality.