Smartphones make workers exhausted and unproductive, study says

Turn that phone off and turn in. That's the formula suggested by a new study reported by Melissa Korn in the Wall Street Journal: “Reading and sending work email on a smartphone late into the evening doesn't just make it harder to get a decent night's sleep. New research findings show it also exhausts workers by morning and leaves them disengaged by the next afternoon.”

The study, by researchers at University of Florida, Michigan State University and University of Washington, surveyed managers and asked them how often they used their smartphones after 9 p.m.

So, when people let smartphones interfere with their sleep they will be tired the next day — showing that bosses who want to improve efficiency at work may want to stop demanding constant contact with employees who should be sleeping.

This research goes in line with earlier findings that pedestrians should not look down at their phones while crossing streets and how using a smartphone instead of working out may not be good for health.

Meanwhile, officials in California are pushing to require smartphones to include a “kill switch” that would disable the phone if stolen, according to the Los Angeles Times. The goal is to reduce robberies, because it makes no sense to steal a smartphone if it won't work. The article did not mention if the kill switch could be activated when a husband won't look up from playing Flappy Bird when his wife is talking to him.

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