Young people struggle to relax because of smartphone attachment, survey claims

Six in 10 say they never switch off because they are constantly checking their mobile

Forty-six per cent wished smartphones had never been invented (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Young people properly relax for just seven hours a week because they are spending too much time on their phones, a new survey has claimed.

A poll of 2,000 adults found busy home and work lives led participants aged between 18 and 34 to get less than 60 minutes to themselves each day.

Around six in 10 said they “never” truly relaxed because they constantly check their phones.

One-tenth of respondents said it was difficult to go longer than 10 minutes without looking at their smartphone.

And nine in 10 participants admitted to opening their phone when they knew they had no new messages.

A spokesman for Treatwell, a hair and beauty service which commissioned the poll, said: “Neglecting our relaxation time can have a really detrimental effect on us, but it can happen quite slowly, so you don’t realise it’s happening.

“Often it takes someone else buying us a gift or taking some of the load from us, to ‘force’ us into a change of habits.”

Many of the adults polled struggled to relax even when they did not have any work to do, with more than a third saying they felt “at a loss” without any chores.

Forty-six per cent wished smartphones had never been invented so that it would be easier for them to relax and switch off.

“Thanks to mobile phones and everything they allow us to do, it means that often when we are ‘relaxing’, we are still ‘switched-on’,” said the Treatwell spokesman.

SWNS