Youth Screen Media Habits and Sleep: Sleep-Friendly Screen Behavior Recommendations for Clinicians, Educators, and Parents

We quantified the joint evolution of sleep duration and screen time between 2018 and 2022 in a large sample of adolescents from Quebec, Canada, to ascertain changes that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A natural experiment design was used to compare variations from year to year and in association with the pandemic outbreak. Using structural equation modeling on data collected between 2018 and 2022 among adolescents attending 63 high schools, we analyzed the joint evolution of sleep duration and screen time while adjusting for previous year values, concurrent flourishing score, sex, age, and family level of material deprivation.

A total of 28,307 adolescents, aged on average 14.9 years, were included in the analyses. Between 2019 and 2022, sleep duration increased by 9.6 (5.7, 13.5) minutes and screen time by 129.2 (120.5, 138.0) minutes on average. In 2022, the adolescents spent almost equal amounts of time sleeping and using screens. Lower flourishing scores were associated with shorter sleep duration and lengthier screen time. Girls’ screen time became similar to boys’ over time.

Adolescents now spend almost equal amounts of time sleeping and using screens, a situation that calls for urgent public health actions. These findings highlight the importance of tracking changes in adolescents’ behaviours over time, to design and implement interventions adapted to the changing health needs of different groups.

To determine the micro-longitudinal effects of duration and timing of screen-based activities on sleep within and between adolescents.

Daily survey and actigraphy data from the age 15 wave of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Four hundred seventy five adolescents provided three or more days of valid daily survey and nighttime sleep data.

Within-person results showed that on days when adolescents played video games more than their daytime average ± SE (1.3 ± 1.2 hours), sleep onset (6 ± 2 minutes, p < .01) and midpoint (4 ± 2 minutes, p < .02) were delayed for each additional hour of gaming. Between-person results showed that for each hour adolescents used screens to communicate with friends across the day, sleep onset was later (11 ± 3 minutes, p < .01), sleep midpoint was later (8 ± 3 minutes, p < .01), and sleep duration was shorter (−5 ± 2 minutes, p < .03). Adolescents who used screens to communicate with friends or play video games in the hour before bed had later sleep onset (30 ± 14 minutes, p < .03) and midpoint (25 ± 13 minutes, p < .05).

Among adolescents, passive screen usage such as browsing the Internet or watching videos may not affect sleep timing or duration, but limiting interactive screen-based activities could protect adolescent sleep health and well-being.

Sleep consolidation into nighttime is considered the primary goal of sleep development in early infants. However, factors contributing to sleep consolidation into nighttime remain unclear.

To clarify the influences of the light environment and nighttime co-sleeping on sleep consolidation into nighttime in early infants.

Cross-sectional study.

Sleep–wake time and light stimulation were measured in infants for 4 consecutive days using actigraphy. The infants’ mothers were asked to complete a sleep events diary and a questionnaire about childcare, including “co-sleeping”, defined as when the infant and mother slept on the same surface throughout the night.

The data were analyzed with a focus on daytime and nighttime sleep parameters.

Daytime light stimulation reduced daytime “active sleep”, tended to reduce daytime sleep, and increased daytime waking. Nighttime light stimulation reduced nighttime “quiet sleep” and nighttime sleep and increased nighttime waking. Co-sleeping reduced nighttime waking, and, as a result, nighttime sleep time and sleep efficiency increased. Co-sleeping reduced daytime sleep and tended to increase daytime waking. Consequently, co-sleeping tended to increase the ratio of nighttime sleep to daytime sleep.

The present findings suggest that an appropriate light environment promotes daytime waking and nighttime sleep in early infants, but it does not contribute to sleep consolidation into nighttime by itself. On the other hand, co-sleeping may promote sleep consolidation into nighttime. Therefore, further methods for safe co-sleeping need to be established while avoiding risk factors for sudden unexpected death in infancy/sudden infant death syndrome.

Previous research associated smartphone use with worsened sleep among adolescents. However, the prior findings were mainly based on cross-sectional, self-reported data, and a between-person level of analysis. This study examined between- and within-person associations for adolescents' smartphone use and multiple sleep outcomes: sleep onset time, sleep onset latency, sleep duration, subjective sleep quality, and subjective daily sleepiness. The participants were 201 Czech adolescents (aged 13–17) who daily reported their sleep outcomes, daily stressors, and other media use for 14 consecutive days via a custom-made research app on their smartphones. The app also collected logs of the participants' smartphone use. We found that interindividual differences within the average volume of smartphone use before sleep were not associated with differences in sleep outcomes. At the within-person level, we found that, when adolescents used smartphones before sleep for longer than usual, they went to sleep earlier (β = −.12) and slept longer (β = .11). However, these two associations were weak. No other sleep outcomes were affected by the increased use of a smartphone before sleep on a given day. We found no interaction effects for age, gender, insomnia symptoms, media use, or daily stressors. However, the association between smartphone use and earlier sleep onset time was stronger on nights before a non-school day. Our findings suggest that the link between smartphone use and adolescent sleep is more complex, and not as detrimental, as claimed in some earlier studies.

This study was performed with the aim of investigating the correlation and the effective factors between internet addiction, obesity risk and sleep disorders in children.

The sample for this descriptive and relational search type study comprised the parents of 458 children aged 7–10 years attending a primary school in Turkey. Data were collected the Parent and Child Descriptive Information Form, Family Child Internet Addiction Scale (FCIAS), Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Tool (FNPAT) and Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC).

There was a statistically significant, positive and weak correlation between the Body Mass Index (BMI) and FCIAS scores of children (p < 0.001). There was a statistically significant, negative and very weak correlation between FNPAT total score with FCIAS total score (p = 0.007). There was a statistically significant, positive and moderate correlation between SDSC total score and FCIAS total score (p < 0.001). According to regression analysis, FCIAS was a determinant at significant levels for FNPAT and SDSC (p < 0.05).

There was a relationship between internet addiction and obesity and sleep quality. As a result of the study, the increase in internet use was determined to negatively impact physical activity and health nutrition behavior, and to increase sleep disturbance.

Pediatric nurses are recommended to give counseling to children and families about preventing obesity and the risk of sleep disorders by identifying children at risk in terms of internet addiction in the early period.