What is the last thing your child does before bed? If you have a tween or teen, it probably involves their phone. Just what effect is night screen time having on their sleep and overall well-being?

A study involving 6,616 British children of an average age of 12 resulted in what many parents already suspected. Two-thirds of the children reported using some screen before bed, whether it was a tablet, e-reader, smartphone, etc. Researchers call it “Screen-Based Media Device (SBMD) use. Use was within in an hour of sleep in either a dark or lit room. The magnitude of the negative effects of SBMD was worse when used in the dark. ¹

Sleep is important to our health. Our brains flush out toxins while we sleep. Furthermore, sleep is vital for physical and mental development, as well as cognitive processes like attention and memory. ²

Lack of sleep in children is associated with:

• Lack of self-regulation
• Attention to on-task learning
• Glucose metabolism
• Hypertension ³
• Poor academic performance ⁴
• Impaired immune response
• Depression
• Obesity
• Anxiety ⁵

You might be surprised at how much sleep children need. Kids ages 7 to 12 years old need between 10-11 hours of sleep each day. For teenagers, the required amount of sleep is 8 to 9 hours. ⁶ Yet, over 90% of high school students do not get the recommended amount of rest. ⁷

It’s been known for some time that watching television before bed is not the best for children transitioning into sleep. This study broadened the scope of screen media to include the personal devices so prominent today.

Of the over 6,600 children surveyed, 70% reported using a screen one hour before bed. In particular, the use of these devices caused problems with falling asleep, restless sleep, and waking early. These problems were significantly higher when the SBMD use was in a dark room rather than a lit one. Researchers report, “However, the odds of insufficient sleep duration were 147% higher for adolescents who use mobile phones in a dark room in contrast to those who were not night-time users of mobile phones.” ⁸

It’s not just insufficient sleep that is affected by the use of screen devices, but measures of overall quality of life as well. Specifically, tweens and teenagers report the following adverse affects:

• An increase in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages
• An increase in sedentary behavior
• Lack of physical exercise ⁹
• Obesity ¹⁰¹¹
• Low self-reported scores for “moods and emotions, self-perception, parents and home life, and school environment” ¹²
• Severe anxiety
• Depression ¹³
• Insomnia ¹⁴
• Increased mental fatigue

The American Academy of Pediatrics has declared the lack of sufficient sleep in teenagers a “major public health issue”. ¹⁵. SBMD use is to blame for part of this issue.

Parents could set screen time limits to ensure their children do not suffer the consequences. Perhaps no screens after dinner or at least 1.5 hours before bed. Rather than simply set rules, we need to explain to our children the consequence of screen time before bed. We know instinctually what SBMD use is doing to us. There’s plenty of research to support these inclinations.

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018312418
2. https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/14_0383.htm
3. https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/14_0383.htm
4. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/134/3/642
5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018312418
6. https://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/sleep-children#2
7. https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/14_0383.htm
8. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018312418#bb0025
9. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-018-5489-3
10. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022347616312434
11. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/140/Supplement_2/S97
12. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217300882?via%3Dihub
13. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032716303196?via%3Dihub
14. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/701
15. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/134/3/642