What it looks at
- How much you use screens, and how much of that is reflex rather than choice
- Night-time use and what it costs your sleep
- Attention at work: switching, notifications, and the cost of getting back in
- Social media and mood — comparison, distress, how you feel afterwards
- Boundaries and control: whether you can stop once you have decided to
A question from this assessment
Outside work, how many hours a day are you on a screen?
Every question is answered on the same 1–10 scale. Questions where a high answer is unfavourable are reversed before scoring.
Who it is for
Anyone who opens an app without deciding to, anyone whose evenings disappear, and anyone who suspects their phone is costing them sleep.
How the result is reported
Common questions
Is this a screen addiction test?
No. Problematic technology use is a real clinical topic but it is assessed by clinicians, not by websites. This describes habits, and it is deliberately more interested in the reflex than the hour count.
What is the single most effective change?
Charging the phone outside the bedroom. It removes the last hour of the night and the first hour of the morning from the loop at the same time, and needs no willpower after the first week.
Does screen time really affect sleep?
The evening use matters more through what you do than through the light itself — messages, news and social feeds are activating, and that is harder to switch off than brightness.
Scientific basis
The questions in this assessment are adapted from the domains these validated instruments and guidelines cover.
- Smartphone Addiction Scale — Short Version (SAS-SV)
- Internet use and sleep meta-analysis
- Media multitasking research
- Screen time and well-being ("Goldilocks") studies
Sources
- Kwon M et al. The Smartphone Addiction Scale: development and validation of a short version. PLoS One. 2013PMID 24391787
- Alimoradi Z et al. Internet addiction and sleep problems: systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Med Rev. 2019PMID 31336284
- Chang AM et al. Evening use of light-emitting eReaders. PNAS. 2015PMID 25535358
- Madore KP, Wagner AD. Multicosts of multitasking. Cerebrum. 2019PMID 32206165
- Przybylski AK, Weinstein N. A large-scale test of the Goldilocks hypothesis. Psychol Sci. 2017PMID 28085574
- Twenge JM, Campbell WK. Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being. Prev Med Rep. 2018PMID 30406005
- Andreassen CS et al. Addictive use of social media and video games and psychiatric symptoms. Psychol Addict Behav. 2016PMID 26999354
This is an educational self-assessment, not a medical test. It cannot diagnose anything. Read the medical disclaimer before you start.