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Impact of Night-Time Smartphone Use Education on Sleep Hygiene Practices among University Students in Nigeria

Abstract

Night-time smartphone use has become an important public health concern among university students because prolonged use of smartphones before bedtime may interfere with healthy sleep routines and contribute to delayed sleep onset, reduced sleep duration, nighttime awakenings, daytime fatigue, and poor sleep quality. University students may frequently use smartphones at night for academic activities, social media, entertainment, communication, online learning, and other purposes. Continuous exposure to smartphone screens, stimulating digital content, notifications, and prolonged engagement with online activities may make it difficult for students to disengage from their devices and maintain appropriate sleep schedules. Limited awareness of the potential effects of excessive night-time smartphone use and inadequate knowledge of sleep hygiene may contribute to unhealthy sleep practices. Night-time smartphone use education provides an opportunity to improve students' knowledge of digital habits, sleep hygiene, bedtime routines, and practical strategies for reducing smartphone-related sleep disruption. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of night-time smartphone use education on sleep hygiene practices among university students in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on the Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory, and Theory of Planned Behavior. The Health Belief Model explains how students' perceptions of susceptibility to sleep problems associated with excessive night-time smartphone use, perceived severity, perceived benefits of reducing nighttime device use, perceived barriers, and cues to action may influence their sleep hygiene practices. Social Cognitive Theory emphasizes self-efficacy, observational learning, peer influence, environmental factors, reinforcement, and behavioural skills in developing healthier digital and sleep-related behaviours. The Theory of Planned Behavior emphasizes students' attitudes toward night-time smartphone use, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and behavioural intentions as determinants of bedtime smartphone behaviour and sleep hygiene. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how night-time smartphone use education may influence sleep hygiene practices among university students in Nigeria. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise undergraduate and postgraduate students aged 18 years and above enrolled in selected public and private universities across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, universities, faculties or departments, levels of study, and eligible students. Night-time smartphone use education will be assessed using indicators such as exposure to educational sessions, frequency and duration of education, information on the relationship between smartphone use and sleep, effects of screen exposure and stimulating digital content, bedtime smartphone habits, notification management, use of smartphones for academic activities at night, digital relaxation strategies, establishment of technology-free periods, and practical methods for reducing night-time smartphone use. Sleep hygiene practices will be assessed using indicators such as maintaining regular bedtime and wake-up schedules, avoiding prolonged smartphone use before sleep, limiting nighttime notifications, creating a technology-free bedtime routine, reducing stimulating activities before bedtime, maintaining an appropriate sleep environment, limiting caffeine and energy-drink consumption close to bedtime, using relaxation techniques, avoiding unnecessary nighttime awakenings to check smartphones, and maintaining adequate sleep duration. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized sleep hygiene and smartphone-use assessment tools, sleep diaries or recent sleep-pattern assessments where appropriate, smartphone-use self-monitoring records where feasible, and relevant university health programme records. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize students' characteristics, smartphone-use patterns, night-time usage behaviours, sources of health information, and sleep hygiene practices. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, t-tests, correlation analysis, and logistic or multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the impact of night-time smartphone use education on sleep hygiene practices. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, sleep hygiene practice scores before and after the educational intervention may be compared with those of a comparison group to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that night-time smartphone use education has a significant positive impact on sleep hygiene practices among university students in Nigeria. Students exposed to structured and practical education are expected to demonstrate healthier bedtime and sleep hygiene practices than students without comparable exposure. Education may improve students' understanding of how prolonged smartphone engagement at night can interfere with healthy sleep routines and encourage them to establish technology-free periods before bedtime, reduce unnecessary nighttime notifications, avoid stimulating online activities late at night, and maintain more consistent sleep schedules. Students may also become more aware of the importance of creating a relaxing pre-sleep routine and limiting academic or entertainment-related smartphone use close to bedtime. Practical strategies such as activating do-not-disturb settings, keeping smartphones away from the sleeping area, scheduling specific times for checking messages, and replacing nighttime screen use with non-screen relaxation activities may improve students' ability to implement healthier sleep hygiene practices. However, academic demands, online learning requirements, social-media engagement, peer influence, fear of missing out, habitual smartphone use, social expectations, and dependence on smartphones for communication may reduce the effectiveness of education alone. The study therefore expects accessible, practical, evidence-based, and sustained night-time smartphone use education, supported by university health promotion and student wellbeing programmes, to contribute significantly to improved sleep hygiene practices among university students in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on smartphone use, digital health, sleep hygiene, sleep health, university student health, health education, behavioural health, digital wellbeing, and public health in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Federal Ministry of Education, universities, university health centres, student counselling services, healthcare professionals, psychologists, public health practitioners, student organizations, digital-health programmes, development partners, and policymakers regarding strategies for promoting healthier technology and sleep behaviours among university students. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating digital-wellbeing and sleep-hygiene education into university health programmes, improving awareness of healthy night-time smartphone habits, promoting technology-free bedtime routines, strengthening student counselling and health-promotion services, encouraging responsible use of smartphones for academic and social activities, and developing practical strategies for improving sleep hygiene among university students across Nigeria.

Keywords: Night-time smartphone use education, sleep hygiene practices, smartphone use, university students, sleep health, digital wellbeing, screen exposure, bedtime behaviour, health education, Nigeria, public health.