Who Uses Phone Apps to Track Sleep Habits? Health & Wealthy in US
The profile of most Americans who use popular mobile phone apps that track sleep habits is that they are relatively affluent, claim to eat well, and say they are in good health, even if some of them tend to smoke.
These are some of the surprise findings, say the study authors, of the first national survey of sleep-specific mobile health app use among men and women in the United States.
The survey was led by researchers at NYU School of Medicine, published online Jan. 16 in the journal Health Communication, and funded by the communications company Verizon.
Researchers say widespread use of mobile devices to monitor daily habits may offer health care providers a way to more quickly diagnose and more effectively treat sleep problems, which are tied to increased rates of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Supporting this approach is a 2015 Pew Research Center survey, which showed that the amount of mobile time spent by Americans tracking their health habits is second only to that spent surfing the internet.
But the NYU School of Medicine researchers caution that the value of sleep apps to either users or sleep specialists is unclear so far.
They say the current study sets the stage for future investigations to determine what aspects of sleep can be measured effectively by the apps, and how these measurements can be used to gauge changes, both good and bad, in sleep patterns.
“People are getting all this information on their sleep patterns and not really knowing how to interpret it, or even if it’s legitimate data,” says study lead investigator, Rebecca Robbins, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Health.
The new study findings are based on results of a survey conducted in June 2015. The survey group comprised an ethnically diverse population of 934 mobile phone users, of whom 263 (28 percent) say they use a health app to keep tabs on how long they sleep, what time they turn out the lights, whether they wake up in the middle of the night, and whether they snore, have trouble breathing, or change sleeping position.
In addition to the overall health and wealth of the majority of users, the results showed that more men than women track their sleep (35 percent versus 20 percent, respectively), and their average age skewed young, at 34. People with yearly incomes above $75,000 and those who already use a health app to remind them about taking their medications were also more likely to track their sleeping habits. Sleep app users typically had between 16 and 25 health apps on their smartphones.
The most popular apps for sleep tracking (of 24 health apps identified in the survey) are Fitbit (10 percent), Lose It (3.5 percent), and Apple Health (2.6 percent).
“Sleep apps are very popular among a diverse group of Americans, and they have a lot of them to choose from,” says Robbins.
According to senior study investigator and epidemiologist Dustin Duncan, ScD, the trend toward self-monitoring of health factors like sleep is growing, and Robbins and he next have plans to work with app manufacturers to validate their measurements. Until then, says Duncan, an assistant professor at NYU Langone, health professionals will not know how to use these apps to help people change their behaviors to improve their health.
Once validated, says Robbins, sleep apps could become a powerful tool as not just a “health coach,” but also as a “sleep coach.” Ideally, she hopes that mobile apps will serve as a key tool for monitoring patients between check-ups.
For the study, survey participants answered 36 detailed questions about their mobile phone and app use, all posed by digital survey firm Toluna, based in Wilton, Conn. As part of the study design, surveyors recruited participants traditionally underrepresented in other surveys about mobile phone use, including minorities, and people with low incomes. More than half of those participating in the new survey had annual incomes of less than $50,000. The average age of all survey respondents was 47.
Using the Internet May Prompt Religious ‘Tinkering’ Rather Than Belief in Only One Religion
Internet use may decrease the likelihood of a person affiliating with a religious tradition or believing that only one religion is true, according to a Baylor University study.
That may be because Internet use encourages religious “tinkering,” said Baylor sociologist and researcher Paul K. McClure.
“Tinkering means that people feel they’re no longer beholden to institutions or religious dogma,” he said. “Today, perhaps in part because many of us spend so much time online, we’re more likely to understand our religious participation as free agents who can tinker with a plurality of religious ideas — even different, conflicting religions — before we decide how we want to live.”
For example, while many Millennials have been influenced by their Baby Boomer parents when it comes to religion, the Internet exposes them to a broader array of religious traditions and beliefs and may encourage them to adjust their views or experiment with their beliefs, perhaps adopting a less exclusive view of religion, McClure said.
His study — “Tinkering with Technology and Religion in the Digital Age” — is published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
The study also examined television viewing and found that it was linked to religion, but in a different way — lower religious attendance and other religious activities that take time. But McClure noted that lower religious attendance of TV viewers may be because some are ill, injured, immobile or older and incapable of taking part, and some may simply watch television to pass the time.
In 2010, when this survey was first conducted, people were spending more time on average watching television, but that has changed today as more people are spending time online or on their smartphones instead, McClure said.
“Both TV and the Internet require time, and the more time we spend using these technologies, the less time we have to participate in religious activities or with more traditional communities,” he said.
In his research, McClure analyzed used data from Wave III of Baylor Religion Survey, a survey of 1,714 adults nationwide ages 18 and older. Gallup Organization administered the surveys, with a variety of questions, in fall 2010.
In the data analyzed by McClure, participants were asked:
- How often they took part in religious activities, among them religious attendance, church socials, religious education programs, choir practice, Bible study, prayer groups and witnessing/sharing faith.
- How much they agreed on a scale of 1 to 4 with the statements “All of the religions in the world are equally true” and “All around the world, no matter what religion they call themselves, people worship the same God.”
- How many hours a day they spent surfing the Internet and how many hours they spent watching TV.
- What religious group(s) they were affiliated with, including a category of “none.”
The analysis also took into account such variables as age, race, gender, education, place of residence and political party. While those factors had varying impact on religious beliefs, despite the differences, “the more time one spends on the Internet, the greater the odds are that that person will not be affiliated with a religion,” McClure said.
While the Internet is nearly 26 years old, 87 percent of American adults use it, compared with before 1995, when fewer than 15 percent were online, according to a 2014 report by the Pew Forum Internet Project.
Sociologists debate how Internet use affects people.
“Some see it as a tool to improve our lives; others see it as a new kind of sociocultural reality,” McClure said.
Scholars point out that the Internet may corral people into like-minded groups, similar to how Google customizes search results and advertisements based on prior search history. Additionally, many congregations — some 90 percent, according to previous research — use email and websites for outreach, and more than a third have both an Internet and Facebook presence.
Other scholars have found that when people choose ways to communicate, some often choose a less intimate way — such as texting rather than talking.
McClure noted that sociological research about the impact of the Internet is difficult for scholars because its swift changes make it a moving target.
“In the past decade, social networking sites have mushroomed, chat rooms have waned, and television and web browsing have begun to merge into one another as live streaming services have become more popular,” McClure said.
His study has limitations, such as measuring only the amount of time people spent on the Internet, not what they were doing online, McClure said. But the research may benefit scholars seeking to understand how technologies shape religious views.