Authors: Jerlin Glites¹; Reshma Nair¹
¹Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education
Background: Prolonged screen time in young adults is linked to vestibular problems, cochlear issues, and disturbed sleep patterns, yet little is known about how these systems are convergently affected; this study investigates whether excessive screen time produces a consistent pattern of dysfunction across all three domains and their interrelationships.
Method: 36 young adults (18–25 years) were divided into high (>4 hrs/day, n=18) and low (<4 hrs/day, n=18) screen time groups, with screen time quantified via structured interview using a weighted daily average formula. Sleep quality, vestibular symptoms, and cochlear outer hair cell function were assessed using the Sleep Quality Scale (SQS), Vertigo Symptom Scale – Short Form (VSS-SF), and Distortion-Product OtoAcoustic Emissions (DPOAEs) (356–5645 Hz) respectively, with Shapiro-Wilk, Mann–Whitney U, independent samples t-tests, and Spearman’s correlation employed for statistical analysis.
Results: The high screen time group showed significantly poorer sleep quality [$t = -4.29, p < .001$] and greater vestibular symptom severity [$U = 82.5, p = 0.012$] compared to controls, while DPOAE amplitudes revealed no significant difference between groups [$p > 0.05$]. Screen time was strongly correlated with poorer sleep quality [$\rho = 0.571, p < .001$] and moderately correlated with vestibular symptoms [$\rho = 0.470, p = .004$], with sleep quality and vestibular scores also significantly interrelated [$\rho = 0.333, p = .04$].
Conclusion: Excessive screen time negatively impacts sleep quality and vestibular function in young adults, with significant associations observed across these systems, while cochlear function remained unaffected, highlighting the need for longitudinal research to establish causality.
