Introduction
Despite creating multiple opportunities for people, mobile phones are still characterized by various social and health-related drawbacks. Poor sleep quality and overall sleeping health introduce serious problems among adolescents (Bartel et al., 2019). Modern researchers and healthcare practitioners continue investigating the field to find solutions and promote young adult well-being and cognitive improvements. Education, counseling, and time management are common ways to offer for young people. This scholarly paper aims to develop the PICOT question and clarify if the implementation of education on night-time mobile phone usage can reduce sleepiness among teenage people in one year.
Problem Statement
Today, many individuals cannot organize an appropriate usage of their mobile phones and bedtime, which results in poor sleep habits and cognitive functioning. Bartel et al. (2019) prove that restricted mobile phone use might be beneficial for total sleep time. Besides, there is a relationship between phone usage and sleep quality, addressing such factors as sleep latency, duration, arousal, and working memory (He et al., 2020). According to Ragupathi et al. (2020), the progress of the education system and continuous technological advancement made students spend much time online for their academic purposes. The problem is that night-time mobile phone use provokes physical and mental health problems, and teenage people should know how to solve them.
PICOT Question
The current paper should create a solid background to answer one PICOT question. “In teenage people (P), just how will the implementation of education on night-time mobile phone usage (I) reduce sleepiness (O) compared to not receiving the educational program (C) in one year (T)?” There are five major sections to be discussed in this question, including population (P), intervention (I), comparison (C), outcome (O), and timeframe (T).
Population of Interest
It is hard to imagine a day in teenage life without a mobile phone. The Australian findings report that 82% of adolescents regularly prefer using these devices for different purposes (Inyang et al., as cited in Bartel et al., 2019). In China, students introduce the largest Internet user group, about 96% of netizens (He et al., 2020). Students demonstrate a high level of mobile phone engagement for academic purposes, chatting, social media, and messaging at night (Rabiu et al., as cited in Ragupathi et al., 2020). Thus, teenagers become the major population of interest compared to older or younger individuals.
Intervention of Interest
According to the offered PICOT question, education on night-time mobile phone usage is an intervention of interest. There are many controversies about the connection between phone usage and poor sleep quality: either the former provokes the latter or vice versa. Therefore, young students should investigate the topic, and education is the best way to gather information and analyze findings. Educational interventions allow participants to understand key concepts, evaluate their knowledge, and improve their skills.
Comparison of Interest
The success of the current project lies in the possibility of comparing options and finding out the benefits and challenges of each. In this case, the absence of an educational program is used for comparison. The definitions are clear: one person gets access to a professionally developed educational program, and another does not obtain education on night-time mobile phone usage. It does not take much effort to compare the results and prove the effectiveness of the intervention.
Outcome of Interest
The expected outcome of the study is to clarify if education might reduce sleepiness in teenagers. He et al. (2020) developed an opinion that restricted bedtime mobile phone use has a positive effect on sleep latency management, pre-sleep arousal, and sleep duration. Therefore, this PICOT question helps integrate various elements of education and observe if sleepiness reduction is possible. Most teenagers are not able to cope with their daytime sleepiness, which may be caused by inadequate night-time sleep, external distractions, and inconsistent wake-up time (Ragupathi et al., 2020). If mobile phone usage at night time is properly organized, there is a chance to reduce sleepiness with time.
Timeframe
The choice of a timeframe for the study plays an important role. On the one hand, limited deadlines may provoke insufficient results or negatively affect the quality of an educational program. Teenage participants should have enough time to learn the material and apply their knowledge in practice. On the other hand, extended research requires additional resources and not all participants have much free time due to other academic activities and personal interests. Therefore, one year seems to be a rational choice to understand if education on mobile phone use at night time helps teenage people reduce sleepiness.
Conclusion
Teenage people need more information about how to use their mobile phones and not to challenge their physical and mental health. Night-time usage of technological devices is one of the reasons for sleepiness and other poor cognitive functioning. The decision to analyze if a one-year implementation of an educational program on night-time mobile phone usage would help teenagers reduce sleepiness is a good idea for the PICOT and further study. Improved awareness of the effects of mobile phones during bedtime should provoke positive changes in teenagers’ behaviors.
References
Bartel, K., Scheeren, R., & Gradisar, M. (2019). Altering adolescents’ pre-bedtime phone use to achieve better sleep health. Health Communication, 34(4), 456-462.
He, J. W., Tu, Z. H., Xiao, L., Su, T., & Tang, Y. X. (2020). Effect of restricting bedtime mobile phone use on sleep, arousal, mood, and working memory: A randomized pilot trial.PloS One, 15(2).
Ragupathi, D., Ibrahim, N., Tan, K. A., & Andrew, B. N. (2020). Relations of bedtime mobile phone use to cognitive functioning, academic performance, and sleep quality in undergraduate students.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(19).