How can phones affect sleep?

+ tips to help your teen avoid theirs

It’s no secret that teens love their screens – whether it’s scrolling, gaming, or chatting.

But have you noticed if your teen struggles to wind down at night or seems more tired during the day? The reason could lie in how devices affect their sleep.

Here’s why phones can affect sleep

Everyone has a built-in “body clock,” known as the circadian rhythm, that regulates sleep and wakefulness.

This rhythm is heavily influenced by light.

During the day, natural light helps us feel alert and awake, while darkness signals the release of melatonin, the hormone that makes us sleepy.

However, the blue light emitted by electronic devices disrupts this process. It tricks the brain into thinking it’s still daytime, delaying melatonin release and making it harder to fall asleep. Over time, this can lead to insufficient sleep, which can leave teens feeling irritable, unfocused, and more tired during the day.

Tips to support better sleep habits

Getting a teenager to unplug isn’t always easy – phones and devices are pretty central to their social lives and downtime nowadays. But there are some practical strategies you can try to help them build healthier sleep routines:

• Use dark mode: encourage your teen to activate dark mode on their devices to reduce screen brightness and blue light exposure
• Phone-free bedrooms: create a household rule to keep bedrooms screen-free at night – if this feels too challenging, you could offer to help by keeping their phone in a safe spot until morning
• Explore other forms of entertainment: suggest non-digital pre-sleep activities like reading, journalling, doing art, or even organising their outfits for the next day
• Set a wind-down period: help them develop a habit of avoiding screens 1–2 hours before bedtime – suggest replacing screen time with something relaxing, like listening to a podcast or doing a skincare routine

If you do genuinely have worries there's something more going on, luna's got a guide to spotting the signs of a phone addiction which you might find helpful.

Why it’s worth it – justifying these suggestions to your teen

Sleep is crucial for teens’ health, mood, and academic performance – not to mention their overall wellbeing.

Helping your teen establish healthier habits around nighttime screen use can make a big difference in how they feel and function day to day.

Give them some of these tips a try, if you like, and remind them that even small changes can have a big impact on their sleep and energy levels. Here’s to better rest for everyone in your family.

Finally, why not support your teen with luna premium?

Our app, luna, has dedicated advice on this topic as well as a sleep tracker which can help them feel more empowered through adolescence.

You can think of luna as a modern, digital version of the puberty books we had growing up – it’s cost-effective, verified by doctors and safeguarding experts, and has a direct line into the biggest concerns facing teens today – so it’s actually addressing what they need advice on, when they need it.

If you’ve been looking for an antidote to the misinformation and negativity shared on social media or forums, you can get luna for your teen via our luna premium page for the price of a coffee each month or manage their subscription by downloading luna yourself and signing up as a parent (it's "we are luna" in app stores).