Feeling Stressed? Your Screen Time Could Be Making It Worse

Feeling unusually irritable, stressed, or unable to keep up with everyday tasks? The amount of time you spend online may be playing a role.

A study published in the scientific journal PLOS One, involving more than 900 adults in Germany, found a connection between problematic internet use, higher perceived stress, and a more negative mood.

Researchers defined problematic internet use as excessive or poorly controlled online behavior that causes distress or begins to interfere with everyday life.

Stress Can Lead to More Screen Time

Andreas Oelker, a researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and lead author of the study, explained that stress and negative emotions can increase the urge to go online. But instead of necessarily making people feel better, problematic internet use may become part of a cycle in which stress and excessive browsing reinforce one another.

Researcher Silke Müller noted that problematic internet use is not currently recognized as a single official mental health disorder, although certain specific online behaviors, such as gaming disorder, have received greater clinical attention.

The findings highlight an increasingly familiar problem. When people feel overwhelmed, bored, or unhappy, reaching for a phone can provide an immediate distraction. But hours of scrolling, checking messages, and jumping between apps may leave them feeling even more mentally drained.

Why Constant Browsing Can Feel Exhausting

Long periods of screen use can involve more than simply looking at a device. Notifications, social media feeds, messages, videos, and constant switching between different types of information repeatedly compete for our attention.

Multitasking can add to that mental load. Answering messages while checking social media or moving rapidly between apps can make it harder to focus on one task at a time and may leave us feeling as though we have been busy without actually accomplishing very much.

Screen habits can also displace activities that help us recharge, including physical activity, face-to-face interaction, time outdoors, and uninterrupted rest.

Try Starting the Morning Without Your Phone

One simple way to begin changing the habit is to avoid reaching for your phone the moment you wake up.

Even waiting five minutes creates a small boundary between waking up and entering the stream of messages, news, notifications, and social media.

Instead, use those first few minutes to begin the morning more intentionally: say Modeh Ani, wash your hands, recite the morning blessings, get dressed, or simply allow yourself to wake up before checking what happened online overnight.

Five minutes may seem insignificant, but changing that automatic first reach for the phone can be a simple first step toward making screen time something you choose rather than something that controls your attention.