Stress, screens quietly rewiring brains - experts warn

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If you often wake up tired, reach for your phone before you even blink, or find yourself doom-scrolling deep into the night, you are part of a growing behavioural shift that experts say is silently rewiring how people think, sleep, and cope.

Uganda’s fast-paced hustle culture, cheap internet bundles, rising financial pressure and nonstop digital stimulation are creating a generation that is always connected yet increasingly exhausted.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over a billion people worldwide now live with mental-health conditions, and stress levels are climbing across continents.

But in Uganda, psychologists say the danger is not just the stress itself but how ordinary, everyday habits are reshaping the brain.

Among these, the most damaging are digital overuse and chronic sleep disruption.

Moses Ssemakula, Executive Director and Lead Clinical Psychologist at the Integrative Centre for Mental Health Uganda, says phone dependency has quietly become one of the fastest-growing behavioural challenges in the country.

“People roam aimlessly into their phones even when it’s not alerting them,” he says. “Habitual checking becomes automatic, and that’s when it starts showing addiction symptoms.”

He notes that Uganda’s low-cost mobile data has intensified the trend.

With bundles as low as sh250, what starts as a quick message check quickly becomes hours of scrolling.

Ssemakula warns that this compulsive behaviour is training the brain to seek constant stimulation, shrinking attention spans and making people anxious when their phones are out of reach.

And with Uganda’s 2026 election season approaching, he predicts an even sharper rise.
“Election seasons are emotionally charged,” he explains. “People stay glued to their phones for every update, and prolonged exposure to political tension causes chronic stress, sleep disruption and burnout.”

A crisis unfolding at night

While screens keep the brain overstimulated, experts say the real crisis is unfolding at night, when people fail to get the deep, restorative sleep their bodies desperately need.

Sleep specialist Carolyn Busingye of Addy Memorial Hospital warns that chronic sleep neglect is becoming one of the most overlooked health threats.

Most adults sleep only five to six hours and insist they are functioning just fine.
“Sleeping less than five hours a night impairs the brain in the same way as being legally drunk,” she says.

Her biggest concern is not just the amount of sleep people are losing, but the inconsistency of their schedules.

Irregular bedtimes, unpredictable wake-up hours, and weekend “catch-up sleep” all disrupt the body’s circadian rhythm, the internal clock that governs energy, mood, hormones, and metabolism.

“When this rhythm is stable, you fall asleep easily and wake up refreshed,” she explains. “But when it’s unstable, everything becomes harder, thinking, emotional regulation, even digestion.”

The effects often show up quietly: brain fog, irritability, dips in concentration, weakened immunity, and heightened anxiety.

“Only one percent of the population can function on very little sleep,” she says. “For everyone else, poor sleep slowly damages long-term health.”

What makes 2026 particularly worrying, both experts say, is how these two habits reinforce each other.

The blue light from screens suppresses melatonin, delaying sleep, and the mental stimulation of late-night scrolling keeps the brain alert at the wrong time.

Moreover, the fatigue that follows pushes people back into their phones for distraction, creating a loop that is hard to break.

Ssemakula believes the way forward lies in intentional limits of reducing notifications, setting boundaries with social media, and reconnecting with offline activities that allow the mind to reset.

For the somnologist, simple sleep rituals of dimmed lights, consistent wake-up times, and at least one screen-free hour before bed is key.

“Rest is not a luxury. It is a biological necessity,” she says.

As Uganda steps into 2026, experts say the most important resolution is not about productivity, money, or fitness but reclaiming the mind from habits that quietly drain it.