Putting down your phone may help you live longer

New York: If you’re like many people, you may have decided that you want to spend less time staring at your phone. It’s a good idea: An increasing body of evidence suggests that the time we spend on our smartphones is interfering with our sleep, self-esteem, relationships, memory, attention spans, creativity, productivity and problem-solving and decision-making skills. But there is another reason for us to rethink our relationships with our devices. By chronically raising levels of cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, our phones may be threatening our health and shortening our lives. Until now, most discussions of phones’ biochemical effects have focused on dopamine, a brain chemical that helps us form habits — and addictions. Like slot machines, smartphones and apps are explicitly designed to trigger dopamine’s release, with the goal of making our devices difficult to put down. This manipulation of our dopamine systems is why many experts believe that we are developing behavioural addictions to our phones. But our phones’ effects on cortisol are potentially even more alarming. Cortisol is our primary fight-or-flight hormone. Its release triggers physiological changes, such as spikes in blood pressure, heart rate and blood sugar, that help us react to and survive acute physical threats. These effects can be life-saving if you are actually in physical danger — like, say, you’re being charged by a bull. But our bodies also release cortisol in response to stressors where an increased heart rate isn’t going to do much good, such as checking your phone to find an angry email from your boss. If they happened only occasionally, phone-induced cortisol spikes might not matter. But the average American spends four hours a day staring at their smartphone and keeps it within arm’s reach nearly all the time, according to a tracking app called Moment. […]

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