Access to small screens equals less sleep for kids, study says
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* Natalie McGill

Kids whose eyes stay glued to smartphone screens are getting glossy-eyed during the day from lack of sleep, a recent study says.

Youth who slept near a small screen, such as a smartphone, had 20.6 fewer minutes of sleep than those who did not sleep near one at all, according to a study published February in *Pediatrics*.

The findings were not surprising to lead study author Jennifer Falbe, ScD, MPH, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of California-Berkeley. Falbe said there is already research about the effects of having a TV in the room on sleep health — in her study, kids with a TV in their room had 18 fewer minutes of sleep than kids without a TV. However, small screens allow access not only to TV content but other diversions such as social media and texting, she said.

“Small screens have become ubiquitous, so it’s important to study the impacts of small screens on health outcomes, including insufficient sleep,” Falbe told *The Nation’s Health*.

The study looked at more than 2,000 fourth- and seventh-graders in 2012 in the Massachusetts Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration Study. Participants were asked questions about when they went to bed and woke up during the week, if they felt like they needed more sleep and how often they slept next to small-screen devices.

More than half of the kids said they slept near small screens and 75 percent reported sleeping in a room with a TV, the study said. The differences in lost sleep also varied by race. Black kids who slept near small screens reported nearly 31 additional fewer minutes of sleep on the weekdays than white kids who slept near small screens, the study said.

“There’s potentially several reasons for that,” Falbe said. “One could be that certain groups experience higher levels of psychosocial stress, increasing their vulnerability to sleep-disrupting impacts of screen exposure.”

Falbe said the small-screen time may lead not only to fewer minutes of sleep but also a lack of quality sleep. A lack of quality sleep could be a risk to a child’s immunity, behavioral health and waistline. Falbe said parents should keep small screens out of their kids’ bedrooms, limit their recreational screen time and set curfews for the devices.

“As members of the public health community, pediatricians can incorporate into their well-child visits an assessment of children’s screen time, including what devices they use, where these devices are located, how much time they spend with screens and if there are any rules at home,” Falbe said. “Pediatricians can recommend to parents that they establish very firm rules.”

To view the study abstract, visit [http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2015/01/01/peds.2014-2306.abstract](http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2015/01/01/peds.2014-2306.abstract).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association