Digital multi-tasking is causing us to lose sleep, rewiring our brains and disrupting focus

With the summer holidays now upon us, in some parts of the world, many people will be looking forward to kicking back with a good novel, or having the time to read longer articles. However, technology is making it harder and harder for us to concentrate on long texts, and many of us give up after a few minutes. Instead, we find ourselves jumping from task to task, or from window to window on the computer, and struggle to find the peace of mind to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes.

Whether working or relaxing, we are immersed in nearly constant screen time, be it on TVs, computers, mobiles or tablets. Phones are especially hard to avoid: we take them everywhere, and use them to access basic services like banks or food shopping, as well as for videos, podcasts or games.

In Spain, for example, people spend an average of 5.45 hours a day online, with similar figures across Europe – the UK average sits at 5.75 hours, while Portugal tops Europe’s rankings with around 7.5 hours per day.

This is having an impact on our brains. We are becoming accustomed to what is known as “bottom-up” attention, where emotions or interest are triggered by external...

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