How many years of our lives will we spend staring at a screen?

A new study estimates that the average person will spend 34 years - or 40% of their total lifespan - in front of a screen. When you subtract the years we spend sleeping - about a third of our lifetimes - that leaves a mere 22 years of being awake and offline. 

Those figures are based on the life expectancy of an Australian man or woman, currently 83 years. 

On the basis of a poll of 2,000 adults, researchers estimate that the typical man or woman will be glued to a screen for more than 13 hours a day.

The finding that we will spend more than three decades of our time on earth gazing at our phones, tablets, computers or television is the shock conclusion of a new British study commissioned by eyewear provider Vision Direct.

On the basis of a poll of 2,000 adults, researchers estimated that, from the ages 18 to 81, the typical man or woman will be glued to a screen for more than 13 hours a day.

The study also found that most of us reach for our devices pretty much from the moment we open our eyes in the morning.

On average, we will be looking at a screen within 20 minutes of getting out of bed. And almost a third of us will be online within five minutes of regaining consciousness. 

For most adults, screen-time is dominated by computer use, with television consuming a dwindling share of our on-screen hours. The average person now spends four hours a day on their laptop or PC, compared to 3.5 hours watching TV. The remaining time is spend on phones (2.5 hours), tablets, gaming consoles and e-readers. 

Four in ten parents told researchers they worried their children were spending too much time on devices.  But two-thirds admitted they felt too hypocritical to do anything about it.