Researchers Find iPhone’s Night Shift Doesn’t Improve Sleep Quality

Researchers at Brigham Young University experimented to find out how Apple Night Shift improves sleep quality. They concluded that the feature is practically useless, although Apple claims otherwise.

In the study published in the journal Sleep Health, researchers assessed the sleep quality of 167 young people by asking each to wear an accelerometer on their wrist before bed. The participants were randomly divided into three groups: the first did not use their iPhones before going to bed, the second used smartphones with Night Shift turned off, and the third activated this feature. The researchers concluded that there were no significant differences in sleep quality between the three experimental groups.

Subjects who slept more than 6.8 hours a night experienced improved sleep quality if they did not use their smartphones before bed. But the use of Night Shift by people whose sleep duration is less than 6.8 hours a day did not affect its quality in any way. This suggests that exhausted people during the day fall asleep well, no matter what happens before bed, the researchers said. They also argue that mental stimulation has a much more tangible effect on sleep quality than blue light.

Ultimately, the researchers concluded that only eliminating a smartphone before bed could improve its quality. They also disprove the popular belief that features like Night Shift, and its counterparts can mitigate the negative effects of smartphone use on sleep.