How Screen Time Is Becoming a New Maritime Fatigue Risk

We have reported before about how long shifts, overnight watches, and inadequate crew rotation can push maritime workers toward dangerous levels of exhaustion. But a newer and less obvious source of fatigue is showing up in research, and it has nothing to do with how hard someone is working. It has to do with what they are doing during the hours they should be resting.

Internet connectivity at sea has improved dramatically as low-earth-orbit satellite systems, led by Starlink Maritime, replace older geostationary satellites parked 22,000 miles up. Those older systems were slow, laggy, and often expensive as they were billed by the megabyte, so crew members had to use them sparingly. Low-earth-orbit satellites orbit just a few hundred miles up, cutting lag and adding bandwidth at a flat monthly rate. This recent technology has turned a once rationed connection into something on par with home broadband, even on smaller fishing vessels that could never have previously justified the costs.

Workers who once went weeks without contacting home can now call, text, and video chat from the middle of the ocean. Another real advantage to this new satellite technology is the ability to dependably reach help in an emergency. The trouble is that this same connectivity is creating a new and measurable safety problem: digital fatigue.

A 2025 study published in the Turkish Journal of Maritime and Marine Sciences looked specifically at digital fatigue among seafarers and its effect on mental health. The researchers found that prolonged screen use, intensive digital workload, irregular sleep patterns, and social isolation were the primary factors driving mental health issues in the seafarers studied. The study also assessed what helps: limiting digital device usage, providing social support plans, and introducing stress management strategies all showed a measurable, protective effect.

Earlier research points in the same direction. A study of cargo seafarers published in the International Maritime Health journal found that mariners who spent the most time on social media during off-duty hours were more than two and a half times more likely to experience anxiety problems compared with those who spent less time online, and mariners spending more than four hours a day on social media showed significantly higher rates of depression. About a third of participating workers spent up to two hours a day online, another third spent two to four hours, and the remaining third spent more than four hours daily. A meaningful share of that usage fell during or right after work shifts, exactly when the body and mind should be recovering.

Endless scrolling, binge-watching, or online gaming during rest periods can contribute to digital fatigue and reduced alertness during working shifts. In an industry where safety depends on alertness and vigilance, screen fatigue is a real danger. A deckhand or watchstander who spent their off hours awake on a phone screen rather than asleep is carrying the same impaired attention and slowed reaction time we have written about in the context of overwork fatigue, just from a different cause.

There is also a second, less obvious consideration. Constant connectivity means seafarers are now exposed to stress from home in real time, in a way earlier generations of mariners simply were not. A family financial issue, a child’s school struggle, a parent’s illness, this news now arrives instantly by text or video call. According to the Seafarers’ Happiness Index for the first quarter of 2026, crews increasingly carry the emotional weight of these unresolved domestic situations onto the boat, unable to provide reassurance or help in person.

The captain’s responsibility is to maintain a safe work environment. Vessel owners must evolve and actively implement Fleet Digital Management Policies. This means setting clear, enforceable boundaries such as automated bandwidth restrictions for off-duty shifts, and strict device bans on deck. When management fails to establish guidelines and limits, they are effectively allowing an impaired workforce to operate heavy machinery.

This is not a call to cut seafarers off from their families. Connectivity is a major improvement in quality of life at sea, and the 2025 SEAFiT Crew Survey found that 90 percent of seafarers rated communication and connection with home positively. The issue is not access, but a lack of guidelines for managing it the way captains already manage work hours.

Under the Jones Act, a vessel owner has an absolute duty to provide a seaworthy vessel, which includes a crew that is fit for duty. If an owner provides high-speed internet but fails to implement a policy to manage the predictable fatigue it causes, they may be creating an unseaworthy condition. Just as an owner cannot ignore a broken radar or an intoxicated crew member, they cannot ignore a watchstander who is visibly impaired by a 12-hour gaming or scrolling binge.

If you have been injured in an incident where fatigue, however it arose, was a contributing factor, the facts surrounding rest periods, work hours, and onboard policy deserve careful examination. Contact Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC for a free, confidential consultation. With offices in Seattle and Anchorage, we represent maritime workers throughout Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Call 1-877-DECKLAW.