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Summary: A new study shows the way you use your smartphone at night can predict your level of suicide risk the next day, if you’re already at a high risk of suicide.

Key Points:

  • Increasing rates of suicide over the past 20 years inform the need for ongoing research into any method of predicting suicide risk.
  • People with some types of mental health disorders have an increased risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts
  • People with previous suicide attempts have a high risk of suicidal ideation and subsequent suicide attempts.
  • For people at high suicide risk, the manner and length of nighttime smartphone use can predict level of suicide risk the next day.

Suicide in the U.S.: 20 Year Upward Trend

Suicidality is a growing problem in the U.S. across all age groups. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 2023 suicide was among the top 8 leading causes of death for people age 10-64 and the second leading cause of death for people age 10-34.

That’s not all.

The latest big-picture data on suicide in the U.S., also reported by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), shows the following:

Suicide in the U.S.: Facts and Figures (2023 Data)

  • Total deaths: 49,000
    • That’s one death every 11 minutes
  • Active or passive suicidal ideation in past year:
    • 12.8 million
  • Made a plan to attempt suicide in past year:
    • 3.7 million

It’s also important to note that the increased awareness of suicidality in recent years in the U.S. is the result of a 20+ year increase in suicide deaths, with small decreases (within the overall upward trend) observed between 2018 and 2020. Here’s the trend data, also from the CDC:

Suicide Trends, U.S., 2000-2023, Rate per 100,000

  • 2000: 10.4
  • 2005: 10.9
  • 2010: 12.1
  • 2015: 13.3
  • 2018: 14.2
  • 2020: 13.5
  • 2023: 14.1

The data above show that suicide rates peaked in 2018 at 14.2 deaths per 100,000 people, with the most recent confirmed data from 2023 showing a rate of 14.1 deaths per 100,000 people. Between 2000 and 2023, rates of suicide among adults in the U.S. increased by 36.6 percent.

To address this society-wide problem, a group of researchers designed a study called “Passive vs Active Nighttime Smartphone Use as Markers of Next-Day Suicide Risk” in order to answer the following question:

Are the timing and type (passive vs active) of nighttime smartphone use associated with next-day suicidal ideation and suicide planning in high-risk adults?

In other words, the research team sought to determine whether the way you use your smartphone at night can predict your level of suicide risk the next day, if you’re already at a high risk of suicide.

Nighttime Smartphone Use and Next Day Suicide Risk: The Study

To conduct the experiment, the researchers enrolled 79 high-suicide risk participants, average age of 35, 68 percent female. Criteria for inclusion in the study included owning a smartphone, availability for the study period, and variation in key variable during the duration of the study. Researchers conducted thee study between 2022 and 2024.

All participants were determined to be at a high risk of suicide before the study began, and reported the presence/diagnosis of the mental health disorders below. The presence of co-occurring diagnoses means the total percentages below may exceed one hundred:

  • Major depressive disorder (MDD): 43%
  • Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): 34.2%
  • Panic disorder (PD): 40.5%
  • Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): 32.9%
  • Alcohol use disorder (AUD): 18%
  • Substance use disorder (SUD): 25.3%

In addition, study participants reported the following history of suicidality:

  • Past-week suicidal ideation: 39.2%
  • Ever made a suicide plan: 72.2%
  • Made suicide plan in past year: 38%
  • Ever attempted suicide: 64.5%
  • Attempted suicide in past year: 27%

To assess nighttime smartphone use, the researchers created three categories, or methods for assessing duration and frequency of use.

Method One:

  • Measure length of phone-free periods between 8:00 pm and 10:00 am

Method Two:

  • Measure use of smartphone during self-reported sleep hours

Method Three:

  • Record hourly use between 11:00 pm and 8:00 am

In addition, the research team identified passive and active use:

  • Scrolling without keyboard activated was defined as passive use
  • Activation and use of keyboard was defined as active use

Let’s take a look at what they found.

Nighttime Smartphone Use and Next Day Suicide Risk: The Results

We’ll review the results of the study, one method at a time, to learn whether the way you use your smartphone at night can predict your level of suicide risk the next day.

First, the association between phone-free evening hours and next-day suicide risk.

Results, Method One: Length of Phone-Free Period

Compared with participants with 4- to 7-hour phone free periods during nighttime, participants with 7- to 9-hour phone-free gaps showed:

  • Lower next-day passive suicidal ideation
  • Lower next-day active suicidal ideation
  • Reduced instances of next-day suicide planning

These results show that overall, longer periods without nighttime smartphone use, at night, were associated with lower risk of suicidality, compared to shorter periods without nighttime smartphone use.

Next, let’s look at the association between smartphone use during sleep hours and next-day suicide risk.

Results, Method Two: Use of Phone During Sleep Hours

Compared to middle of night use (1:00 am – 5:000 am) and early use (5:00 am – 8:00 am), phone use late at night (11:00 pm to 1:00 am) was associated with:

  • Higher next-day passive suicidal ideation
  • Higher next-day active suicidal ideation
  • Increased instances of next-day suicide planning

This is where the results of this study become more focused. Data shows that smartphone use between 11:00 pm and 1:00 am was associated with increased risk of suicidality. That’s a surprising outcome, until we understand that that period – between 11pm and 1am – is right in the middle of self-reported sleep hours for most people, and disruption during that period is likely to indicate a problem with sleep, mental health, physical health, or all three.

Next, let’s look at the association between active smartphone use during sleep hours, passive smartphone use during sleep hours, and next-day suicide risk.

Results, Method Three: Passive Use and Active Use

Active use, defined as the activation of keyboard and presence of keyboard activity, was associated with:

  • Lower next-day suicidal ideation when active use occurred during middle-of-night hours, between 1:00 and 5:00 am.
  • Lower next-day passive suicidal ideation when active use occurred during self-reported sleep windows
  • Reduced next-day active suicidal ideation when active use occurred during self-reported sleep windows
  • Lower overall suicidal ideation when active use occurred during non-sleep periods.

We’ll discuss this final set of data below.

Passive Scrolling or Seeking Connection and Support: The Manner of Nighttime Smartphone Use Matters

The final set of data we share above is the most illuminating. It shows that if you’re already at high risk of suicide, the way you use your smartphone at night can predict you level of suicide risk on the next day.

But it’s not just that you’re using your smartphone, it’s how and when you use your smartphone.

We’ll circle back to the first set of results, that show use in the middle of self-reported sleep time – 11pm – 1 am – predicted increased next-day risk of suicidality. That’s interesting: it wasn’t the 1am – 5am time slot, but rather the 11pm – 1am time slot that increased risk. That makes sense, as mention, when we realize that’s in the middle of sleep time, when any disturbance is likely to indicate the presence of an underlying problem.

However, what we found most compelling was that active smartphone use at any time during the night, even during self-reported sleep hours, was associated with decreased risk of suicidality. The research team proposes that active smartphone use – as identified by active keyboard use – is likely to indicate engaging with others for support or actively seeking helpful information about mental health, suicide, or related topics.

Here’s how the research team characterizes their findings:

“This study found temporally specific associations between nighttime smartphone use and next-day suicidal ideation and suicide planning. Late-night use signaled vulnerability, while middle-night active engagement seemed protective. These findings differentiate harmful passive consumption from potentially adaptive digital coping, potentially serving to advance precision approaches to suicide prevention.”

We can use this information to reduce suicide risk among our patients with a high level of suicide risk. We can encourage our patients to resist passive scrolling in the middle of the night, and instead use their smartphone to seek support, communicate with friends, or seek helpful resources that function as protective factors against suicide risk.

The more we understand about suicide risk, and the more our high-risk patients understand about factors that increase suicide risk, the better we can help them, and the better they can help themselves. Addressing the problem of suicide in the U.S. requires a collaborative, all-hands-on-deck approach, and this information can bring patients and providers together to create a broader knowledge base of both the risk and protective factors associated with suicide.

Support for Suicidality: Crisis and Emergencies

If you or someone you care about is at risk of suicide, please get help immediately.

  • If risk of harm is imminent, call 911 now.
  • If risk of harm is serious but not imminent, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
  • 988 connects people in crisis to trained professionals who can assess needs and connect you to local support.

Support for Suicidality: Longer-Term Mental Health Support

If you or someone you know needs professional treatment and support for suicidality, please contact us here at Crownview Psychiatric Institute: we can help. In addition, you can find support through the following online resources:

About Angus Whyte

Angus Whyte has an extensive background in neuroscience, behavioral health, adolescent development, and mindfulness, including lab work in behavioral neurobiology and a decade of writing articles on mental health and mental health treatment. In addition, Angus brings twenty years of experience as a yoga teacher and experiential educator to his work for Crownview. He’s an expert at synthesizing complex concepts into accessible content that helps patients, providers, and families understand the nuances of mental health treatment, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes and quality of life for all stakeholders.