People in high-tech societies enjoy longer and better-quality sleep than those in non-industrialised environments, but suffer more potentially damaging disruption to natural biological rhythms, research has found.
The findings challenge the idea that technology dependence is causing an epidemic of sleep deprivation, but support the thesis that factors such as lack of sunlight and the use of blue-light-emitting screens may have harmful effects.
The study is part of an expanding effort to understand how aspects of restlessness in urban life might contribute to fatigue, depressive disorders and physical conditions such as obesity and cancers.