Go to bed on time instead of staying up for games, short videos or pornography
In 2025, Chinese residents averaged 6.97 hours of nighttime sleep and fell asleep around 00:10. Bedtime phone or tablet use was associated with over twice the odds of insufficient sleep and 2.7 times the odds of daytime sleepiness. Merely having a device in the bedroom showed similar associations.
What it takes
Free. Resisting “one more” takes sustained effort; keeping the phone outside the bedroom is the easiest environmental change.
What you may gain
The Chinese Sleep Research Society reported average nighttime sleep of 6.97 hours and sleep onset at 00:10 in 2025. A meta-analysis of 20 cross-sectional studies involving 125,198 children and adolescents found bedtime portable-device use associated with ORs of 2.17 for insufficient sleep, 1.46 for poor sleep quality and 2.72 for daytime sleepiness. Device presence without use gave corresponding ORs of 1.79, 1.53 and 2.27. Another cross-sectional study of 844 adults aged 18–94 found that phone use after lights out was associated with slower sleep onset, lower sleep efficiency and greater daytime fatigue.
Context & considerations
See sleep restriction for the cost of staying up. Reliable evidence does not establish whether pornography itself reduces ordinary users' energy or cognition. One meta-analysis attributes many reported pornography problems to conflict between personal beliefs and behavior rather than content alone. Another analysis of 280 men found no relationship between viewing duration and erectile function with a partner. This entry concerns sleep displaced by viewing. Verification pending in the source: the Society's dynamically loaded original page could not be retrieved, so the Chinese figures rely on the provincial health commission's republication.
Research & references
Carter et al. (2016). Association Between Portable Screen-Based Media Device Access or Use and Sleep Outcomes. JAMA Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.2341 ; Exelmans & Van den Bulck (2016). Bedtime mobile phone use and sleep in adults. Social Science & Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.11.037 ; Chinese Sleep Research Society (2026). 2026 China Sleep Health Research White Paper, Health News reporting reproduced by Fujian's Health Commission. https://wjw.fujian.gov.cn/jggk/csxx/xcc/mtbd/202603/t20260323_7114382.htm ; Grubbs JB et al. (2018). Pornography Problems Due to Moral Incongruence: An Integrative Model with a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Archives of Sexual Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1248-x ; Prause N, Pfaus J (2015). Viewing Sexual Stimuli Associated with Greater Sexual Responsiveness, Not Erectile Dysfunction. Sexual Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1002/sm2.58 (the two contrasting pornography findings discussed below).