Older adults with more [smartphone usage](https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/news/seniors-smartphone-dependency-rising-faster-than-for-younger-age-groups-new-data-shows/) had poorer sleep quality, according to a new study. Depression and loneliness played a significant role in making sleep quality even worse.
Researchers surveyed 200 older adults in China to see if they had smartphone addiction using the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV). The team also looked at sleep, depression and loneliness using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for sleep quality, Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15) for depression and DeJong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (DGLS) for loneliness.
Participants were aged 60 to 70 and living in a medical institution or older adult care facility for at least six months. They also had smartphones for at least six months.
Older adults with higher smartphone addiction levels had worse sleep quality, the team found. Depression and loneliness are additional factors that may make sleep worse in those with smartphone addiction, the data showed.
The [study](https://bmcnurs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12912-025-02883-7), which was published on March 6 in _BMC Geriatrics_, demonstrates the importance of care for the mental health of the older adults and brings to light the negative impact of smartphone addiction on their quality of life, the investigators wrote.
“Loneliness directly affects sleep quality, and can also indirectly affect sleep quality through smartphone addiction,” they added. People who feel lonely may use a smartphone to comfort themselves, but it reduces sleep time and efficiency at the same time, the authors explained.
“Daytime fatigue, drowsiness and lack of energy exacerbate sleep disorders, which is consistent with the finding that loneliness increases the tendency to rely on smartphones,” they noted.
Smartphone addiction isn’t recognized as a formal clinical disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) or the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) as of now. But many aspects of the behavior seem to be similar to other recognized behavioral addictions, the authors pointed out.