Most of the extra time men log on the toilet has little to do with their digestive system. Research consistently points to smartphones as the single biggest time inflator, with one study finding that phone users were roughly five times more likely to spend over five minutes per bathroom visit than non-users. Layer on the fact that the bathroom has become one of the last reliably private rooms in a busy household or office, and you have a behavioral pattern that looks physiological but is mostly psychological and technological.
Phones Turned a Two-Minute Task Into an Open-Ended Session
A cross-sectional study published in PLOS ONE examined toilet habits and smartphone use among hundreds of participants. The numbers were striking: about 37% of people who used their phones on the toilet spent more than five minutes per visit, compared to just 7% of those who left their phone outside the bathroom.1PLoS One. Smartphone use on the toilet and the risk of hemorrhoids That gap is enormous and hard to explain away as coincidence. The phone doesn’t cause a bowel movement to take longer; it simply removes the cue to leave. Without something to scroll through, the natural signal of “I’m done” prompts you to stand up. With a phone, that signal gets drowned out by the next article, video, or message thread.
Surveys consistently find that a majority of people bring their phones into the bathroom. In one study of university-aged adults, about 68% admitted to carrying their phone into the toilet, and 60% said they actively used it while in there.2PubMed Central. Prevalence of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria on Mobile Phone Surface The behavior is normalized enough that most people don’t think of it as unusual. But the data suggest it’s the single most powerful predictor of how long someone stays seated, more than diet, more than constipation, and more than any anatomical difference between men and women.
The Bathroom as a Private Retreat
There’s a dimension to long toilet sits that smartphones alone don’t explain. For many men, the bathroom represents the only room in the house with a door that locks and a socially bulletproof reason to be behind it. Nobody questions a closed bathroom door the way they might question a closed bedroom door or a retreat to the garage. This isn’t a new observation, but academic research has started to take it seriously.
A 2025 paper in the journal Emotion, Space and Society examined how corporate restrooms function as what the authors call “therapeutic landscapes,” spaces that evolve from purely functional rooms into sanctuaries where people find momentary escape from intense work demands and interpersonal pressure.3Emotion, Space and Society. The role of corporate public restrooms as therapeutic landscapes That framework applies equally well to home bathrooms. If your living space is shared with a partner, kids, or roommates, the toilet becomes the one place where five uninterrupted minutes of solitude is both expected and unquestioned.
This is especially relevant for men because Western cultural norms around emotional regulation tend to leave men fewer socially accepted outlets for downtime. A woman stepping away to take a bath or read a book is unremarkable. A man doing the same can feel like it requires more justification. The bathroom sidesteps that entirely. You’re not being lazy or antisocial; you’re using the toilet. The combination of a locked door, a legitimate excuse, and a smartphone creates a micro-retreat that’s hard to replicate anywhere else in many people’s daily routines.
Why Sitting Posture Slows Things Down
The design of standard Western toilets quietly works against efficient bowel emptying. When you sit upright on a typical toilet, your hips are flexed at roughly 90 degrees. In that position, a muscle called the puborectalis wraps around the rectum and holds it at a kink, creating a bend of about 100 degrees in the anorectal canal. That kink is useful when you’re standing or walking because it helps maintain continence. But when you’re trying to evacuate, it means you have to push harder and longer to force stool past the angle.
Research comparing sitting and squatting postures has quantified this. In one study, squatting opened the anorectal angle to about 126 degrees, compared to 100 degrees in a standard seated position, and required less abdominal pressure to begin defecation.4PubMed. Influence of Body Position on Defecation in Humans A separate study found that every participant reported both faster emptying and less straining while squatting, with the differences being large and consistent.5PubMed. Comparison of straining during defecation in three positions: results and implications for human health This matters for the toilet-time question because the seated position creates a baseline inefficiency. Even a healthy person with a normal diet may need to sit and strain for a few extra minutes simply because the geometry is working against them.
This is the physiological kernel of truth behind the long toilet sit. The effect is universal, not male-specific, but it sets the stage: sitting down to defecate already takes longer than it should, and every additional factor, whether that’s a phone, low fiber intake, or a medical condition, stacks on top of that baseline.
Do Men Actually Have Slower Digestion?
Here’s where the popular assumption falls apart. If anything, the available data suggest that men move food through their colons faster than women, not slower. A study measuring gastrointestinal transit in healthy adults found that colonic transit was significantly faster in men, with gastric emptying also more rapid.6PubMed Central. Variability of gastrointestinal transit in healthy women and men Another study looking specifically at regional transit times found that women had significantly longer transit through the left colon, with average total transit times of about 30 hours for women versus 22 hours for men, though the overall difference didn’t quite reach statistical significance.7The Korean Journal of Internal Medicine. Effects of Gender and Menstrual Cycle on Colonic Transit Time in Healthy Subjects
In other words, the plumbing argument doesn’t hold up. Men’s guts generally push material along at least as quickly as women’s, and often faster. If men consistently spend more time on the toilet despite having equal or faster digestive transit, the explanation is behavioral. The evidence keeps pointing back to phones, privacy seeking, and habit rather than anything happening in the colon.
Diet, Fiber, and the Morning Routine
Diet does affect how long a bowel movement takes, and dietary patterns can vary between individuals in ways that matter at the toilet. Fiber is the biggest lever. A metabolic study in adult men tested different fiber sources over 80 days and found that coarse wheat bran and purified cellulose sped up intestinal transit, while finely ground bran and cabbage fiber did not. Interestingly, participants on fine bran or cellulose reported more difficult or uncomfortable defecations.8The Journal of Nutrition. The Influence of Dietary Fiber Source on Human Intestinal Transit and Stool Output The type and texture of fiber mattered as much as the amount. A person eating plenty of vegetables but little whole grain might still have sluggish transit.
Timing also plays a role. Your colon follows a circadian rhythm, with peak motility during the daytime, especially after waking up and after meals, and minimal activity at night.9PubMed Central. Disruption of Circadian Rhythms and Gut Motility: An Overview of Underlying Mechanisms and Associated Pathologies This explains why the morning bathroom visit tends to be the longest. Your colon has been relatively quiet all night, then wakes up and gets triggered by your first meal or cup of coffee. For many men, the morning sit is the one that stretches out, partly because their colon is doing the most work at that point, and partly because it coincides with pre-work downtime when a phone scroll feels most appealing.
When a Medical Condition Is Actually Responsible
For some men, the extended toilet sit isn’t about phones or privacy. It’s genuine difficulty emptying the bowel. Dyssynergic defecation is a condition where the muscles of the pelvic floor and abdomen fail to coordinate properly during a bowel movement. Instead of the pelvic floor relaxing to allow stool to pass, it tightens or contracts at the wrong moment, making evacuation feel incomplete or impossible without prolonged straining.
This is not a rare problem. Roughly a third of people with chronic constipation have some form of evacuation disorder, and dyssynergic defecation is one of the most common causes.10PubMed Central. Dyssynergic Defecation: A Comprehensive Review on Diagnosis and Management Some estimates suggest it affects up to half of chronically constipated patients.11PubMed Central. Diagnosis and Treatment of Dyssynergic Defecation It’s considered an acquired behavioral problem, meaning it develops over time rather than being something you’re born with, and it responds well to biofeedback therapy once diagnosed. But many people with it never get diagnosed because they assume their difficulty is normal, especially if they’ve always had long toilet sessions.
If you regularly spend 10 or more minutes straining and still feel like you haven’t fully emptied, that pattern is worth bringing up with a doctor. It’s distinct from the “lost track of time scrolling” scenario because it comes with physical effort and a sense of incomplete evacuation. The two can also overlap: someone with mild dyssynergia may start bringing a phone to the toilet to pass the time while waiting for things to move, and the phone use then extends the visit even further.
What Prolonged Sitting Actually Does to Your Body
The health risks of spending too long on the toilet are real and tend to be underappreciated, probably because the topic feels too mundane to worry about. The most well-documented risk is hemorrhoids. Sitting on a toilet seat for extended periods increases pressure on the veins around the anus and lower rectum. The PLOS ONE study that tracked smartphone use and toilet time also found a direct relationship between toilet duration and hemorrhoid risk.1PLoS One. Smartphone use on the toilet and the risk of hemorrhoids The mechanism is straightforward: the toilet seat supports your thighs and buttocks but leaves the perineal area unsupported, and gravity pulls blood downward into the hemorrhoidal veins. The longer you sit, the more engorged those veins become.
Nerve compression is a less common but more dramatic risk. A case report described a 29-year-old man who developed acute sciatic nerve palsy after reading on the toilet for about 45 minutes. When he tried to stand, he had immediate weakness in his left leg, couldn’t bear weight, and had numbness in his foot.12PubMed Central. Sciatic nerve damage due to toilet seat entrapment: another Saturday night palsy The hard rim of the toilet seat compressed the sciatic nerve against the bone. This is an extreme case, but the familiar “pins and needles” sensation after a long toilet visit is a milder version of the same mechanism. Repeated compression of peripheral nerves isn’t something to shrug off.
The cardiovascular dimension is subtler but potentially more serious for vulnerable people. Straining during a bowel movement involves what’s known as the Valsalva maneuver, which is essentially bearing down against a closed airway. This briefly spikes blood pressure, slows the heart rate, and then causes a rebound when you release, all of which stress the cardiovascular system.13PubMed Central. Intricate Connection Among the Valsalva Maneuver, Gastrointestinal Tract, and Hemodynamics: A Rare Case Presentation The concern is amplified by the seated toilet posture, which as noted earlier requires more straining than squatting. One paper went so far as to argue that cardiovascular events during defecation are partly a consequence of the seated posture itself, because the excessive straining involved in emptying the bowels while sitting subjects the cardiovascular system to repeated stress that squatting would largely avoid.14Medical Hypotheses. Cardio-vascular events at defecation: Are they unavoidable? For a healthy young person, this isn’t a meaningful danger. For older adults or anyone with cardiovascular disease, long straining sessions on the toilet carry real risk.
Practical Ways to Spend Less Time on the Throne
If you want to cut your toilet time, the highest-impact change is the simplest: leave your phone outside the bathroom. The data make a compelling case that the phone is what stretches a three-minute visit into a fifteen-minute one. If going cold turkey feels unrealistic, setting a five-minute timer when you sit down creates an external cue that your scrolling session has an endpoint.
A footstool placed in front of the toilet to elevate your knees above your hips mimics the biomechanical advantage of squatting. This straightens the anorectal angle and reduces the need to strain, which can shorten the actual defecation process. It won’t cut time off the scrolling, but it addresses the physiological component and reduces the straining that contributes to hemorrhoids and cardiovascular stress.
On the dietary side, adding coarse whole grains rather than relying on fiber supplements or finely processed bran tends to improve transit speed and stool consistency more effectively. Staying hydrated amplifies the effect of dietary fiber. And paying attention to your body’s natural circadian cues, particularly the urge that comes after waking or after breakfast, means you’re working with your colon’s peak motility rather than against it. Ignoring the urge and going later in the day often means a harder, longer session when you finally do sit down.
Hemorrhoids, Footstools, and the Squatting Debate
The popularity of toilet footstools has exploded in recent years, largely driven by the same biomechanical research cited above. The appeal is real: if squatting reduces straining and speeds up emptying compared to sitting, then a device that approximates a squat while you remain on a Western toilet should help. The research does support that hip flexion beyond 90 degrees opens the anorectal angle, and people subjectively report easier bowel movements with elevated feet.5PubMed. Comparison of straining during defecation in three positions: results and implications for human health However, one study found that simply leaning forward with increased hip flexion while seated didn’t significantly change the anorectal angle compared to normal sitting, suggesting the benefits of a footstool may be less dramatic than full squatting.4PubMed. Influence of Body Position on Defecation in Humans The truth is probably somewhere in between: a footstool helps, but it’s not a magic fix, and it certainly won’t counteract the effect of sitting there scrolling through social media for an extra ten minutes.
The hemorrhoid connection deserves one more note. Many men develop hemorrhoids in their 30s or 40s and assume it’s a dietary issue or simply bad luck, when prolonged toilet sitting is a major modifiable risk factor. If you’ve already developed symptoms, shortening your time on the seat and reducing straining through posture adjustments are among the first recommendations any gastroenterologist will make, well before considering procedures. The irony is that hemorrhoid discomfort can itself make bowel movements take longer, creating a feedback loop where the problem reinforces the behavior that caused it.