“It quickly became obvious that teens were spending a lot of time in front of screens in bed,” lead study author Dr. Bradley Brosnan said in a statement.
“Our most interesting findings were that screen time before bed had little impact on sleep that night. However, using phones in bed translated not only to sleep duration but also to sleep quality and therefore how well the children were regenerated and rested,” he said.
Of all study participants, 99 percent used electronic devices within two hours of bedtime. More than half used screens in bed, and a third used them after trying to fall asleep.
The type of screen time that had the most significant impact on sleep was that spent in bed, but also gaming or screen time when children used multiple devices at the same time, such as watching a movie and playing a console.
“Every additional 10 minutes spent in front of a screen reduced the amount of sleep I got that night by almost the same amount,” Brosnan said.
“Our findings suggest that the effects of screen time on sleep are primarily due to a time shift that delays sleep onset, rather than a direct effect of blue light or interactive engagement.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children avoid screen time one hour before bedtime. In New Zealand, the equivalent of this official recommendation is two hours.
However, the study authors concluded that this recommendation needs to be updated to adapt to modern life.
“We need to revisit sleep guidelines so they fit the world we live in and actually make sense – so they are achievable and relevant to the way we live,” Brosnan said.
Text published in the American magazine “Newsweek”. Title, lead and subtitles by the editors of “Newsweek Polska”.
