Digital detox – just another wellness fad?

Digital stress (or technostress) is a burgeoning area of interest in medical and social science research. How does it affect us to be surrounded by digital media in almost every area of our lives? What constitutes digital stress and how does it impact our health (and headache susceptibility)?

Digital is everywhere

Many things in life require digital interaction of one kind or another. As a student, you use a laptop for online lectures, literature searches, reading source material, and writing research papers of your own. If you have a part-time job, it may involve a lot of computer work too. Many people use a tablet to stream their favorite series or wear a smart watch for sports. Our phones accompany us just about every second of the day, for actual phone calls, messaging, checking emails, social media, reading the news, and the various apps that help us through the day.

What is digital stress?

One definition: digital stress is stress associated with heavy or constant use of information and communication technologies, which is triggered by constant access to vast quantities of complex content that overwhelm the user. Research in the young adult generation focuses primarily on the impact of cell phone use on the health of these ‘digital natives’. While many research papers highlight the positive aspects of smartphones – permanent access to information, entertainment, and other people – almost all of them point out that the benefits probably come at some cost to your health.

The almighty smartphone

Multiple studies show correlations between heavy smartphone use and an increasing incidence of stress. A Swedish study in more than 4000 young adults between the ages of 20 and 24 as long ago as 2011 established a link between the stress associated with heavy smartphone use and the incidence of sleep disorders and depression. But if excessive smartphone use increases our stress levels in such an unhealthy way, why don't we put down our phones more often?

FOMO = stress?

Current research in psychology concludes that fear of missing out (FOMO) is a big factor in problematic smartphone use. The pervasive fear that others might be having rewarding experiences that you miss out on is a relatively new phenomenon. Researchers believe FOMO comes from being constantly connected through smartphone and social media use. FOMO keeps us on our phones for much longer than is good for us, the science says.

The "brain drain" hypothesis

Constant digital availability takes its toll on mental health in other ways too. Take the attention economy, for example. We’ve all been there: you need to focus on a task but your phone keeps distracting you with messages from friends, social media notifications, news tickers or something else. A 2017 U.S. study in 600 students showed that, following habitual exposure to such distractions, having a smartphone nearby decreases the available cognition we need to do our best work (the brain drain hypothesis) – even when the phone is face-down, muted or powered off altogether. Let that sink in: the mere presence of a smartphone caused loss of cognition (brain drain) in the young people taking part in the experiments. The authors concluded that physically distancing yourself from your phone is the only way to prevent significant loss of productivity.

Digital stress and headaches

Experts agree that stress is a major headache and migraine trigger (check out the article on our website), so it seems obvious that digital stress can increase your headache burden. In a recent major German study on digital workplace stress in 5000 subjects, 55 percent of respondents reporting high levels of digital stress said they had regular headaches, compared to 'only' 30 percent of subjects who said they had less digital stress. The proportion of subjects struggling with insomnia was also 25 percentage points higher in the high-stress cluster (for more on the sleep-headache connection, click here). 38 percent of the digitally stressed cluster reported general physical exhaustion (22 percentage points more than in the less-stressed cluster). Emotional exhaustion was 27 percentage points higher too. If major digital stress has all these bad health effects and can trigger headaches, we should all follow the authors’ advice and think about ways to reduce digital stress.

Is there nothing we can do?

The links between digital stress and health need a lot more research, but the clear takeaway from the existing evidence is that we should not just stand idly by and let digital media take over every part of our lives. No one would deny the great benefits that digitization brings to many areas of our lives, and a return to the pre-digital era is certainly not the right call. It’s hard to imagine going back to the days of index cards. A ban on online publishing is not going to happen. Few people would want an analog workplace back, either. But in areas where we have a choice about how much time and attention we spend on digital media, mindful use is a practice worth cultivating.

Daily digital detox moments

Banishing your phone from your life is unrealistic. And really, who would want to? That said, a digital detox is an option everyone should consider. Physically distance yourself from your phone for a few hours at a time, for example while studying, reading for pleasure or sleeping, or choose to leave it at home when you go hiking or to see a band. It gives you a breather from everyday digital stress and a chance to keep your mind on what you’re doing (cue: attention economy) and have deeper experiences.