Say it ain’t so, smartphones are ruining our sex lives

Not getting sleep? Having less sex than you'd like? Stop bringing your smartphone to bed with you.

An informal British survey found that adults are going to bed later — and having less sex — than 10 years ago because of their social-networking habits in bed.

The survey, conducted by the price comparison website BroadbandChoices.co.uk, asked questions about bedtime habits and broadband usage.

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A decade ago, the average adult Brit fell asleep at 10:30 p.m.. Today, according to the survey, the typical adult nods off around midnight — with 46 per cent of those surveyed spending those 90 minutes going online from their beds.

The web-browsing, TV-watching, and social-networking in bed adds up to 360 fewer hours of sleep a year. Among the under-30 set, 67 per cent responded that social networking is part of their pre-sleep routine.

Fifteen per cent of people surveyed admitted that their web-surfing in bed has led to less sex.

"We're not surprised people are turning on for the night, rather than turning in," says Dominic Baliszewski, telecoms expert from broadbandchoices. "Broadband has become an essential utility — with so much entertainment available online and so many devices with which to enjoy it, people are using every minute of their free time to get online."

Not everyone brings a gadget to bed, the survey found. Of the over-60s surveyed, almost half of them preferred to read a book — the old-fashioned paper kind — before dozing off.

In October, Weill Cornell Medical College advised people to keep smartphones and televisions out of the bedroom if they're looking to have more sex, more sleep and less stress.

Last year, a survey by the National Sleep Foundation found that 95 per cent of the Americans surveyed admitted to playing video games, watching television, or using computers or smartphones in the hour before going to bed.

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A study out of Harvard Medical School finds the light emitted from these devices can negatively affect the quality of sleep once the individual turns them off.

"Over the last 50 years, we've seen how television viewing has grown to be a near constant before bed, and now we are seeing new information technologies such as laptops, cell phones, video games and music devices rapidly gaining the same status," says Lauren Hale of Stony Brook University Medical Center.

"The higher use of these potentially more sleep-disruptive technologies among younger generations may have serious consequences for physical health, cognitive development and other measures of wellbeing."

Those "serious consequences" can include hurting your sex life.

In a 2010 survey on sex lives by pharmaceutical company Bayer, 28 per cent of women blamed smartphones for their diminished sex lives.

Not only do the phones occupy our time and energy in the bedroom, they make the possibility of the transition to love-making difficult, some experts claim.

"Laptops and smartphones just distract you from each other, and it's nearly impossible to get your head in the right place for sex when two seconds ago you were responding to an email from your boss," Sharon Gilchrest O'Neill, a licensed marriage and family therapist, tells Shape magazine.

Online Psychology Degree published an infographic this fall that reveals 90 per cent of 18- to 29-year-old Americans sleep with their smartphones, and that one in three smartphone owners would choose their phones over sex.

Do you bring a smartphone to bed with you?