Youth Screen Media Habits and Sleep

Summary & key facts

Many children and teens do not get enough sleep. Studies link use of screens, especially in the bedroom or in the hour before bed, to later bedtimes and less total sleep. Experts have set sleep-hour ranges for each age. Research also links short or disrupted sleep to emotional, behavioral, and weight problems. The authors say more research is needed to better understand how screens affect sleep and health in young people.

Key facts:

• About 30% of toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children have insufficient sleep, and a majority of adolescents also do not get enough sleep (source summary).
• Three-quarters (about 75%) of American children and adolescents report at least one screen-media device in their bedroom, and roughly 60% report regular use of these devices during the hour before bedtime.
• A recent literature review found that 90% of the included studies reported an association between youth screen media use and either delayed bedtimes or decreased total sleep time.
• Two expert groups (the National Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine) give similar sleep-duration ranges: newborns 14–17 hours, infants about 12–15 (AASM 12–16) hours, toddlers 11–14 hours, preschoolers 10–13 hours, s
• Researchers propose several ways screens might affect sleep: screens can replace time for sleep (displacement), cause psychological stimulation, expose users to light that can shift body clock timing, and raise physiological alertness.
• Large and experimental studies link short or disrupted sleep to later problems: in one study of 32,662 children, short sleep (≤10 hours/night by parent report) and frequent night wakings (≥3/night) in toddlers were associated with behaviora
• Experimental studies reported that regular napping helped toddlers’ self-regulation, that sleep restriction in teens quickly worsened mood and emotion control, and that 3-year-old children given acute sleep restriction ate more calories and
• The article notes that while many studies show associations, more basic, clinical, and translational research is needed to understand the exact effects of screen media on sleep and downstream health outcomes for children and adolescents.

Topics

Child Development and Digital Technology Sleep and related disorders Sleep and Wakefulness Research

Categories

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Anthropology Bedroom Bedtime Civil engineering Cognition Computer science Electronic media Engineering Media use Medicine Multimedia Normalization (sociology) Operating system Physical activity Physical therapy Psychiatry Psychology Screen time Sleep (system call) Sleep deprivation Sleep loss Social psychology Sociology