A recently published study from an Austrian university has confirmed what many have long suspected: spending less time on your phone can significantly improve your mental wellbeing.

In the experiment, 58 participants tried to reduce their screen time to under two hours per day for three weeks, while a control group of 53 people continued to use their phones for an average of 4.5 hours daily.

The University for Continuing Education Krems monitored the experiment and found clear evidence of a causal link between smartphone use and mental wellbeing. After just three weeks, participants who cut back reported 27% fewer symptoms of depression and a 16% reduction in stress, while overall wellbeing rose by 14% and sleep quality improved by 18%.

Professor Christoph Pieh, who led the study and heads the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the university, said that participants who managed to stay below the two-hour mark experienced a clear positive effect on their mental health.

He noted that excessive scrolling, especially "doomscrolling", the compulsive consumption of negative news, was particularly harmful. The algorithms designed to keep users engaged make it difficult to stop, he warned, whereas listening to music or podcasts posed no such problem.

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