Kebiasaan menatap ponsel di malam hari bisa menurunkan kualitas tidur.

The habit of staring at your phone at night can reduce sleep quality.

Breakdown of Kebiasaan menatap ponsel di malam hari bisa menurunkan kualitas tidur.

• di: at
• malam hari: the night
• bisa: can
• kebiasaan: the habit
• menurunkan: to reduce
• ponsel: the phone
• menatap: to stare at
• kualitas tidur: the sleep quality

Questions & Answers about Kebiasaan menatap ponsel di malam hari bisa menurunkan kualitas tidur.

What exactly does kebiasaan mean here, and why is it followed directly by a verb (menatap)?

Kebiasaan means habit.

In this sentence, kebiasaan menatap ponsel di malam hari literally means the habit of staring at the phone at night.

Indonesian often uses a noun like kebiasaan followed directly by a verb in its base or me- form to express “the habit of doing X”:

• kebiasaan merokok = the habit of smoking
• kebiasaan makan larut malam = the habit of eating late at night

You could also say kebiasaan untuk menatap ponsel, but the version without untuk is shorter and very natural in everyday Indonesian. Both are grammatically correct; kebiasaan menatap is just more common and smoother here.

What is the nuance of menatap compared to other verbs like melihat or menonton?

All three involve vision, but they are used differently:

• melihat = to see / to look at (general, neutral)
  • melihat ponsel = to see / look at the phone
• menonton = to watch (usually something with moving images)
  • menonton TV / film / YouTube
• menatap = to stare at, look at something steadily or intensely
  • menatap ponsel suggests you are fixated on the phone screen.

In this sentence, menatap ponsel emphasizes that you are staring at the screen for some time, which fits the idea of something that can reduce sleep quality. Melihat ponsel would sound less strong and less habitual/intense.

What does ponsel mean? Is it the same as HP or telepon genggam?

Ponsel is short for telepon seluler and means mobile phone / cell phone / smartphone.

Common alternatives:

• HP (pronounced: ha-pe) – from handphone, extremely common in everyday speech:
  
  • menatap HP di malam hari
• telepon genggam – more formal; literally handheld phone

All three are understandable. Ponsel and HP are the most natural in casual modern Indonesian. In written, neutral style, ponsel is very common and fits well in this sentence.

Why is it di malam hari and not just malam? What is the difference?

All of these are possible, but the nuance differs:

• di malam hari – literally in the night time; slightly more formal and complete.
• pada malam hari – also correct; pada is a bit more formal than di, but here di malam hari is more idiomatic.
• malam-malam – more colloquial, meaning at night / at nights, often with a sense of “late at night” or “at night (in general)”.
• Just malam (without a preposition) is less natural in this specific structure.

So di malam hari sounds smooth, neutral, and is very common in written Indonesian for talking about time periods like di pagi hari, di siang hari, di malam hari.

How should I understand bisa here? Is it necessary, and can I replace it with dapat?

Bisa is a modal verb meaning can or is able to. In this sentence:

• bisa menurunkan kualitas tidur = can lower the quality of sleep / can reduce sleep quality

You can replace bisa with dapat:

• … dapat menurunkan kualitas tidur.

Dapat is often a bit more formal or written, while bisa is very common in spoken language. Both are correct here. If you remove bisa/dapat:

• Kebiasaan menatap ponsel di malam hari menurunkan kualitas tidur.

This is still grammatical, but sounds more like a strong, factual statement (it lowers) rather than “it can lower” or “it is able to lower”.

What does menurunkan literally mean, and how is it formed?

Menurunkan comes from the base adjective/verb turun (to go down / decrease / descend).

Indonesian uses the me-…-kan pattern to make a causative verb: “to make something become X / to cause X”.

• turun = to go down, to decrease
• menurunkan = to lower / to reduce / to cause to go down

Other examples:

• panas (hot) → memanaskan (to heat, to make hot)
• besar (big) → membesarkan (to enlarge, to raise [a child])
• lemah (weak) → melemahkan (to weaken)

So menurunkan kualitas tidur = to lower / reduce sleep quality.

Why is it kualitas tidur and not something like kualitas dari tidur?

In Indonesian, two nouns are very often put together directly to show a relationship that in English would use of:

• kualitas tidur = sleep quality / quality of sleep
• tingkat stres = stress level
• biaya hidup = cost of living

You can say kualitas dari tidur, but it is less natural and usually unnecessary in this type of phrase. The direct noun–noun combination kualitas tidur is the most idiomatic here.

There is no subject pronoun like it in the sentence. What is the subject?

The subject is the entire phrase:

• kebiasaan menatap ponsel di malam hari

So the structure is:

• [Subject] Kebiasaan menatap ponsel di malam hari
• [Predicate] bisa menurunkan kualitas tidur

Indonesian does not use a dummy subject like English it. The noun phrase itself directly acts as the subject, even if it is long:

• Makan terlalu banyak gula bisa merusak gigi.
• Begadang setiap malam dapat mengganggu kesehatan.

Does ponsel here mean the phone, a phone, or phones in general? There is no article; how do I interpret it?

Indonesian has no articles like a / an / the. The bare noun ponsel can mean:

• a phone
• the phone
• phones / phone use in general

Context determines the most natural English translation. In this general statement about habits, ponsel clearly refers to phone use in general, so in English we might say:

• “The habit of staring at your phone at night …”
• “The habit of staring at phones at night …”

Indonesian does not mark this difference; it relies on context.

Is the word order fixed, or could I move bisa or di malam hari around?

The given word order is the most natural:

• Kebiasaan menatap ponsel di malam hari bisa menurunkan kualitas tidur.

Some variations:

• Kebiasaan menatap ponsel bisa menurunkan kualitas tidur di malam hari.
  This sounds like the sleep quality at night is lowered (a bit odd; sleep is already at night).
• Di malam hari, kebiasaan menatap ponsel bisa menurunkan kualitas tidur.
  This is acceptable and sounds like a stylistic variation, emphasizing the time.

You generally do not move bisa in front of the subject in standard Indonesian (you would not say Bisa kebiasaan menatap ponsel di malam hari menurunkan kualitas tidur).

Could I say kebiasaan menonton ponsel instead of menatap ponsel?

Not naturally. Menonton is usually used for watching content (video, TV, film, etc.), not for a device itself.

Natural combinations:

• menonton TV / film / YouTube / video
• menatap layar ponsel (to stare at the phone screen)
• menatap ponsel (to stare at the phone)

So you could say:

• Kebiasaan menonton video di ponsel di malam hari bisa menurunkan kualitas tidur.
  (The habit of watching videos on a phone at night can lower sleep quality.)

But menatap ponsel is already a good and natural way to express “staring at your phone”.