Digital Smarts - Screen Time and Sleep – Minimal Impact?

An Oxford study in the Journal of Pediatrics associated every hour of digital screen time to 3 - 8 minutes of shorter nightly sleep among children and teens, with screen time accounting for less than 1.9% of observed sleep outcome variability. The findings, based on 2016 National Survey of Children's Health data involving 50,212 youths ages 6 months to 17 years, "suggest that the relationship between sleep and screen use in children is extremely modest," said researcher Andrew Przybylski. A previous study showed that between 50 percent and 90 percent of school-age children might not be getting enough quality sleep, but researchers say their new findings suggest screen time is not the only culprit affecting sleep time.