Phones and Lost Sleep: In a Survey of 606 Working Adults in Japan, Sleep Was the Top Complaint
Poor and insufficient sleep topped the list of problems people attribute to heavy phone use — 71.7%. But that figure is not 71.7% of everyone surveyed. Here is how to read it, and how to measure your own last hour of the night.
The suspicion that your phone is costing you sleep shows up in survey data too. When working adults are asked what heavy phone use actually costs them, the most common answer is not eyesight and not concentration — it is sleep.
This article is about reading that number properly rather than following a procedure. For the practical steps, see how to stop using your phone before bed.
Sleep tops the list at 71.7%
Job Soken, the research arm of Persol Career, surveyed 606 working adults in Japan (“2024 Survey on Smartphone Reliance”, fielded online 6–11 November 2024). Respondents who said heavy phone use interfered with daily life were asked how:
| Reported problem | Share |
|---|---|
| Insufficient sleep / poorer sleep quality | 71.7% |
| Weaker eyesight / eye strain | 59.0% |
| Weaker concentration | 48.4% |
Sleep outranks both eye strain and concentration. In other words, the first place heavy phone use tends to show up is at night.
71.7% is not “seven in ten working adults”
The base matters here. That 71.7% is not a share of all 606 respondents — the question narrowed in stages before it was asked.
| Stage | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| All respondents | 606 | — |
| Said they rely on their phone (the survey’s own wording) | 450 | 74.3% |
| Of those, said it interferes with daily life | 339 | 75.4% |
| Of those, named sleep | — | 71.7% |
Multiply it through and roughly 240 of the 606 respondents named sleep — about four in ten of everyone surveyed, not seven in ten. The 71.7% figure travels well on its own, so when you quote it, quote the base with it: 71.7% of those who reported interference. For how this survey compares with others that measure different things, see how much screen time is average.
The gap between time used and time tolerable is over an hour
The same survey asked about time. Among those who said they rely on their phone, average self-reported daily use was 264.7 minutes — about 4 hours 25 minutes, with a median of 216.5 minutes. Asked how long they could go without touching the phone, the average answer was 197.2 minutes, about 2 hours 17 minutes, with a median of 120 minutes.
Both numbers are self-reported, so they are comparable to each other: people are using their phones more than an hour longer than they feel comfortable with. For most people with no fixed plans, that surplus hour lands in the evening.
Why the evening is where it lands
Respondents who recognised heavy use in themselves were asked why. The top answers:
- Time passes without me noticing — 78.2%
- I open it whenever there is a small gap — 66.7%
- I could not get through a day without it — 57.4%
What they were using it for: social media 54.7%, watching video 49.6%, checking and replying to messaging apps 42.2%.
That top answer matters more than it looks. “Time passes without me noticing” is what happens when the end of a session has to come from you rather than from the thing you are using. Feeds and short video are built so the next item starts on its own — so even when your body produces the signal to stop, the screen never does.
What this survey can and cannot tell you
Worth separating:
- It can tell you that sleep is the problem working adults name most often, and that there is a real gap between how long people use their phones and how long they are comfortable using them.
- It cannot tell you that phones cause sleep loss. This is a self-report questionnaire, not a study designed to establish cause and effect.
If poor sleep has been going on long enough to worry you, a clinician is the right place for that question — not an article.
Measure your own last hour, for three days
Comparing yourself with a national average is less useful than looking at your own evening.
On iPhone, open the Settings app and tap Screen Time, then Daily Average, then Day — you get that day’s use broken out by time of day. Scroll down on the same screen for the Pickups and Notifications reports (Apple, “Set up Screen Time for yourself on iPhone”). On Android, the equivalent lives in Settings under Digital Wellbeing.
You only need to look at one thing: the two hours before the time you intend to be asleep.
- Pick your intended bedtime (say, midnight)
- Log your screen time in the two hours before it, for three days
- Log the pickup count for the same window
- On the longest of the three days, note what you were actually looking at
- Decide which problem you have: long sessions, or many returns
The distinction changes the fix. Long sessions need an ending you did not have to supply yourself — for late-night video, see making it the last video of the night. Many short returns are usually about where the phone physically sits — start with the charging-location step in how to stop using your phone before bed.
This article summarises published survey findings. It is not medical advice or a diagnosis.
Sources
- Job Soken (Persol Career), “2024 Survey on Smartphone Reliance”, 606 working adults in Japan, fielded online 6–11 November 2024. Problem breakdown asked of the 339 respondents who reported interference (sleep 71.7%, eyesight 59.0%, concentration 48.4%); average use 264.7 minutes vs. 197.2 minutes tolerable; reasons as listed. Japanese-language release: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000227.000013597.html
- Apple, “Set up Screen Time for yourself on iPhone”, iPhone User Guide iOS 27 (wording for Daily Average, Day, Pickups; accessed 27 September 2026): https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/iphone/iphbfa595995/ios
- Google, “Manage how you spend time on your Android phone with Digital Wellbeing” (accessed 27 September 2026): https://support.google.com/android/answer/9346420
FAQ
- What problem do people most often say heavy phone use causes?
- In Job Soken's 2024 survey of 606 working adults in Japan (November 2024), respondents who said heavy use interfered with daily life most often named insufficient sleep or poorer sleep quality, at 71.7%, ahead of eye strain (59.0%) and weaker concentration (48.4%).
- Does that mean seven in ten working adults lose sleep to their phones?
- No. The 71.7% is a share of the 339 respondents who reported interference, not of all 606. Multiplied through, it is roughly four in ten of everyone surveyed, so quote it as 71.7% of those who reported interference.
- Does this survey show that phones cause sleep loss?
- No. It is a self-report questionnaire, not a study designed to establish cause and effect. It shows that sleep is the problem working adults name most often, and that people use their phones longer than they feel comfortable with. If poor sleep persists, a clinician is the right place to ask.
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