Seeing sense

17 May, 2019

According to a study conducted this year by 4Com Media polling 1000 UK working professional adults in the UK, our nation’s workers are jeopardising their sleep quality by spending 85% of their waking hours staring at screens. With the Sleep Council recommending that people get 8 hours of sleep on a night, that leaves 16 waking hours every day, of which Brits are spending an average of 13.57 of these looking at a screen (representing 85% of those waking hours).

New research by ophthalmic services provider Optegra Eye Health Care found that British workers are spending an average of 13 hours and 34 minutes a day looking at screens while at work, commuting and at home. Interestingly, the study states employees are spending an average of 55 hours 36 minutes a month staring at a screen while commuting, when they could be giving their eyes a much-needed rest.

Probably most concerning for readers of this journal is that, according to the Optegra study, engineers are the professionals that spend the most time staring at a screen throughout their day. On average, engineers are looking at screens for 7 hours and 16 minutes at work, 5 hours and 22 minutes while commuting and 6 hours and 3 minutes while at home. The top five professions that are spending the most time looking at screens throughout the day are engineers (18 hours 40 minutes); IT specialists (18 and a half hours); accountants (13 hours 20 minutes); teachers (12 hours 27 minutes); and admin staff (9 hours 28 minutes).

Research has found that excessive blue light exposure suppresses the production of melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles, more than any other type of light. It will come as little surprise then that engineers are also the people whose sleep suffers the most, with 72% agreeing that too much screen time during the day affects their sleep. Engineers were followed by two thirds (66%) of IT specialists, nearly half (45%) of teachers, two fifths (40%) of accountants and just over a third (34%) of admin staff saying that too much screen time affects their sleep.

It would appear that it is not only sleep that is affected by a high amount of time looking at a screen. According to the Optegra study, employees blame issues such as headaches, dry eyes and stress or anxiety on too much screen time. The top five complaints employees have experienced as a result of too much screen time are tired eyes/eye strain (59%); headaches (40%); dry eyes (37%); disturbed sleep (31%); and stress/anxiety (17%).