# University of York says a school smartphone ban improved sleep and mood
Researchers at the University of York say a 21-day smartphone ban at a UK secondary school improved sleep and mood for the pupils who took part in the experiment. The university said the findings came from a documentary-linked study at The Stanway School in Colchester, and the results were posted on the university’s site on 2024-12-14.
The study’s most concrete result was sleep. According to the university, students in the phone-ban group fell asleep about 20 minutes faster than before the intervention and reported getting roughly an extra hour of rest each night. The university also said pupils went to bed earlier during the ban period, and that the self-reported changes were checked against sleep-tracking devices.
Mood improved as well. The source says the same group reported lower feelings associated with depression and anxiety, and that the changes appeared to track with better sleep. That is important because it suggests the benefit was not just behavioral compliance with a school rule but a broader shift in how the students were feeling day to day.
The researchers were more cautious about cognition. They did not report significant gains in sustained attention, and the boost in working memory was modest. That distinction matters because it keeps the result from being oversold. The study points to a clearer relationship between phone restriction and sleep than between phone restriction and immediate cognitive change.
The timing of the release also matters. The university says the findings arrive as policymakers in the UK and elsewhere debate social media and smartphone restrictions for younger children. That gives the study a clear public-policy hook: it offers data for conversations that are often driven more by intuition than by measurement.
The university’s message is measured rather than sensational. It does not argue that smartphones are universally harmful or that bans solve every problem. It says that, at least in this setting, taking phones away from children under 14 appeared to help sleep and overall mood, while cognitive effects were less obvious over the short study period.
For schools and parents, that is still a meaningful result. Sleep is foundational, and if a school policy can improve it even modestly, the downstream effects on daily life could be significant. The study does not close the debate, but it gives it a firmer evidence base.
Claim map
The supplied University of York excerpt supports the claims that a 21-day school smartphone ban improved sleep, improved mood, and did not produce strong short-term gains in attention or cognition.
