Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 205, February 2019, Pages 218-223.e1
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original Articles
Digital Screen Time and Pediatric Sleep: Evidence from a Preregistered Cohort Study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2018.09.054Get rights and content

Objectives

To determine the extent to which time spent with digital devices predicts meaningful variability in pediatric sleep.

Study design

Following a preregistered analysis plan, data from a sample of American children (n = 50 212) derived from the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health were analyzed. Models adjusted for child-, caregiver-, household-, and community-level covariates to estimate the potential effects of digital screen use.

Results

Each hour devoted to digital screens was associated with 3-8 fewer minutes of nightly sleep and significantly lower levels of sleep consistency. Furthermore, those children who complied with 2010 and 2016 American Academy of Pediatrics guidance on screen time limits reported between 20 and 26 more minutes, respectively, of nightly sleep. However, links between digital screen time and pediatric sleep outcomes were modest, accounting for less than 1.9% of observed variability in sleep outcomes.

Conclusions

Digital screen time, on its own, has little practical effect on pediatric sleep. Contextual factors surrounding screen time exert a more pronounced influence on pediatric sleep compared to screen time itself. These findings provide an empirically robust template for those investigating the digital displacement hypothesis as well as informing policy-making.

Section snippets

Methods

The data analyzed were derived from self-report surveys completed by caregivers living in the US collected as part of the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH). Conducted on behalf of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources, and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the NSCH uses an address-based sampling frame and was used both web-based and mailed-paper data collection instruments fielded by the US Census Bureau.29 Fieldwork was

Results

A visual inspection of the sleep and digital screen time trends (Figure 1) indicted digital screen time increases monotonically from age 6 months (28 minutes) to 15 years (4 hours 17 minutes), whereas sleep duration decreases monotonically from 6 months (11 hours 20 minutes) to age 16 years (7 hours 7 minutes). Zero-order Pearson product-moment correlations (Table I) indicated that digital screen time was negatively associated with sleep consistency and duration (rs = −.18 to −.35). Additional

Discussion

The goal of the present study was to provide a critically needed rigorous empirical test of the relationships between children's sleep and digital technology use. The findings derived from this large and nationally representative investigation provide the first confirmatory (ie, theory-testing) evidence that digital screen time is negatively correlated with sleep consistency and sleep duration. These findings are important because nearly all that is known about the effects of digital screens on

Data Statement

Data sharing statement available at www.jpeds.com.

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    The author declares no conflicts of interest.

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