Bedtime screen use harms sleep in youths

Using screens once already in bed appears to have a negative impact on sleep in young people, especially when screen time involves gaming or multitasking, according to a study.

The study included 79 healthy youths between 11 and 14.9 years of age (mean 12.9 years, 59.5 percent boys). All participants wore accelerometers around their wrist, which was used to measure sleep duration and quality. Screen time was measured using wearable or stationary video cameras from 2 hours before bedtime until the first time the youth attempted sleep (shut-eye time) over 4 nonconsecutive nights.

Mixed-effects regression models were used to estimate the association between screen use with sleep measures on a night-to-night basis.

Screen time before bed was documented in all participants except one. Screen use in the 2 hours before bed was not associated with most measures of sleep health that night (eg, mean difference in total sleep time, 0 minute for every 10 minutes more total screen time).

While all types of screen time were associated with delayed sleep onset, the strongest association was observed with interactive screen use (mean difference, 10 minutes for every additional 10 minutes of interactive screen time). Notably, every 10 minutes of additional screen time in bed was associated with shorter total sleep time (mean difference, –3 minutes).

The mean difference in total sleep time was −9 minutes for every 10 minutes of interactive screen use and −4 minutes for passive screen use. Gaming was associated with less total sleep time (mean difference, –17 minutes for every 10 minutes of gaming), as was multitasking (mean difference, −35 minutes on nights with vs without multitasking).

The present data indicate that current sleep hygiene recommendations to restrict all screen time before bed seem neither achievable nor appropriate.