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Many students nowadays depend heavily on their screens for school, communication, and everyday activities. Using a cell phone or laptop is second nature, and spending hours each day on them is considered routine. Where issues begin to arise is with continuous, unstructured, and unmanageable use of these devices.
When students excessively use screen time, it often doesn’t feel like that big of a deal while it is actually happening. It develops gradually with intermittent use that sometimes lasts over time and impacts sleep habits, concentration and wellness as a whole. When a person is able to recognise these consequences and understand their effects, they will be better able to determine if they need to modify their habits.
What “Excessive” Actually Means
When it is disrupting other essential parts of life such as getting quality sleep, concentrating on homework, or having a healthy balance of physical and mental well-being, an excessive amount of screen time occurs.
However, screen time isn’t measured just by the total amount of time that you spend on the device(s); two students may spend the exact same amount of time on their screens, but depending on how that time was used, there will be significantly different outcomes. For instance, using screens for structured learning during school hours would have a significantly different effect than using screens for an extended period of time to watch movies or play video games.
A significant sign of excessive usage is losing your ability to manage/control your use of a computer. For example, when you have been on the device for beyond the period of time that you had originally planned to be or are being unable to concentrate on something else during normal daily tasks.
Sleep and Energy
Sleep is also one of the first areas to be disrupted by excessive technology use.
Screens produce blue light that restrains the body’s production of melatonin which is the hormone that tells the body to sleep. When this hormone is released too late, it makes it harder to fall asleep, even when you are tired.
Because of this, poor sleep leads to:
- Shorter durations of sleep
- Lighter, poorer quality sleep
- Fatigue during the day
For students specifically, this will quickly show its results itself in terms of decreased attention, decreased memory, and an increase in reaction time. Also, a reduction in good sleep will negatively affect mood and increase your overall sense of stress and irritability with other people.
Late-night screen use is especially problematic because that use of the screen often will go past your intended time due to many application developers designing them in a way to keep users constantly engaged.
Focus and Mental Load
Interruption by constant alerts (notifications or messages) or through multitasking (switching back and forth between different apps) causes mental strain by overwhelming the brain with the amount of information being processed within a given time-frame. Attention becomes divided rather than deeply committed to one task at a time.
Mental overload can cause/lead to:
- Work to be completed slower than expected, with many errors or mistakes made.
- Decreased comprehension level of materials being processed or learned.
- When multitasking (e.g., studying while checking text messages), you may believe you are working productively. However, in reality your productivity has decreased due to engaging in multiple tasks at once. Your brain is best at working efficiently when you only do one thing at a time.
Mental Well Being
Using screens can also change a student’s overall mood or how they feel.
One thing that influences the way students feel is when comparing themselves with people they see on social media. Many times the people we see on social media have put together curated lives for us to see, despite if they’re true or not, it can affect our self perception, especially during adolescence.
Another thing that influences the way students feel about themselves when using screens is their habit formation. The majority of social media platforms are created based on small, unrelenting rewards. For example, likes or notifications triggering the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is associated with motivational behaviour and reward.
Feel free to check out my previous article on Understanding Addiction: A Scientific Perspective to expand on what dopamine is and how it can lead to bad habits and addictions.
As a result, these patterns of checking, re-checking and disengaging from the social media platform may be difficult for people to break. Although, this does not indicate that screens are detrimental, this information may clear up why reducing screen time is not as easy as one may think.
Physical Effects You Might Notice
Some effects are more immediate and easier to recognize:
- Eye strain, including dryness or blurred vision
- Headaches after long periods of use
- Neck and back discomfort from prolonged sitting
These are often dismissed as small consequences, but they are signals that the body is under strain from extended screen exposure.
Making Practical Changes
To improve your screen habits, there doesn’t need to be extreme limits implemented. Creating a responsible structure is the goal.
Some adjustments that work quite well are:
- Limiting screen time before bed: This includes even just 30-60 mins before bed to enhance sleep quality.
- Controlling your environment while studying: Keeping your cell phone outside of arms reach while doing focused work will lower disturbances than relying solely on self-control.
- Having short, structured breaks: By taking your eyes off of a screen regularly, this will reduce mental fatigue and eye strain.
Be intentional and useful in your device usage. Determine whether you are using your screen for a specific purpose or just out of habit. By evaluating this daily can help you reduce passive use over time.
A Balanced Approach
Screens are not going anywhere and they are not a problem all by themselves. They are just tools which can either support or disrupt life depending on how you choose to use them.
A balanced approach would be to:
- Prioritise most screen usage for school/work related tasks.
- Decrease unstructured passive screen usage by setting time limits and reminders.
Small, gradual changes are generally more successful than rigid rules. Achieving consistency is a goal, not perfection.
Conclusion
Overall, since excessive screen time has become prevalent in today’s world, many people see it as a common practice, however, the research regarding its true impact on sleep & mental health cannot be ignored.
Through making deliberate changes to your habits, you can benefit all of the advantages of today’s technology while limiting your exposure to their negative aspects.
If you found this helpful and want more clear, student focused insights on health science and pre medical pathways, consider subscribing to the OsmoHealth Journal newsletter. New articles are released regularly to help you better understand the science behind everyday habits.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025). Associations between screen time use and health outcomes among U.S. teenagers. https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2025/24_0537.htm
- Harvard Medical School. (n.d.). Screen time and the brain. https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/screen-time-brain
- Ontario Psychological Association. (2024). The impact of screen time on mental health: What parents need to know. https://www.psych.on.ca/Public/Blog/2024/The-Impact-of-Screen-Time-on-Mental-Health-What-Pa
- Mayo Clinic Health System. (n.d.). Children and screen time: How much is too much? https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/children-and-screen-time
- Nagata, J. M., et al. (2024). Screen time use and mental health among adolescents. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10852174/
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