Parenting in the 21st century can be a challenge, and most parents now wrestle with questions like these: how much screen time is healthy for my kids, does it matter if they have screen time around bedtime, and are there different guidelines for young kids compared to early adolescents and adolescents?
One thing we do know is that excessive screen time for specific demographic groups can lead to problems and increase the risk of developing some serious mental health issues. To learn more, please read our article here:
Does Social Media Harm Teen Mental Health?
That piece discusses the impact of social media on teen mental health. In a study published recently on a more general topic, researchers defined this goal:
“To determine prospective associations between bedtime screen use behaviors and sleep outcomes one year later in a national study of early adolescents in the United States.”
To meet this goal, the research team gathered data from participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). One element of this study that gives the data more weight, compared to many surveys, is the size and diversity of the sample set:
- 9,398 early adolescents aged 11–12 years
- 48.4% female
- 45% racial/ethnic minority
- Researchers examined the associations between self-reported bedtime screen use and sleep variables one year later using the following metrics:
- Self-reported sleep duration
- Caregiver-reported sleep disturbance
- Presence of sleep disorders
Data from a sample this large, encompassing female and male genders, minority and majority ethnicities, and a narrow age range, gives us information that allows researchers, providers, and policymakers to arrive at population-level characterizations. In other words, well-established statistical methods confirm that what’s true for samples this large has a reliable likelihood of being true across people of the same age around the country.
Let’s take a look at the study, and what the researchers found.
Screen Time, Bedtime, and Sleep Health
First, we’ll clarify what the researchers mean by screen time. They include the use of:
- Television
- Computers
- Tablets
- Mobile phones
- Social media
- Video games
In addition to the impact of screen time on teens we share in the article we link to above, research cited in the study shows excess screen time in childhood and early adolescence is associated with:
- Academic difficulties
- Mental health concerns
- Poor sleep
- Low self-image
- Body image problems
- Decreased book reading
- Inadequate time outdoors
- Inadequate exercise
- Problems with weight
- Problems with mood
Those are the problems associated with excess screen time for kids and adolescents in general. This study seeks to understand whether screen time at bedtime causes problems indirectly, through lack of sleep, sleep disturbance, or sleep disorders. Inadequate sleep and sleep deprivation are associated with a host of problems, including:
- Elevated depression risk
- Elevated anxiety risk
- Irritability and anger
- Mood swings
Those consequences can cause significant disruption, and may lead to additional problems in daily life, including:
- Strained family relationships
- Conflict with peers
- Impaired school performance
- Decreased wellbeing
- Decreased self-esteem
Now the reason for this research should be clear. Screen time may impair sleep, impaired sleep may have a negative impact on mental health, and mental health disorders can cause significant disruption to daily living and overall quality of life.
Now it’s time to look at what the researchers found.
Screen Time Before Bed: How Long Are Kids and Adolescents on Screens?
At the beginning of the study, researcher asked study participants – all age 11 or 12 – the following questions in order to establish baseline data. We’ll include the questions as well as the answers, by percentage:
Is there a TV/Internet connected device in your bedroom?
- Yes: 62.5%
- No: 37.5%
What do you do with your phone before sleep?
- Turn off: 54.9%
- Put on silent: 18.4%
- Leave ringer on: 11.2%
- Put outside room: 15.5%
That information allowed researchers to give context – in terms of evening habits – to the answers to the questions below. We know, we know – this is a long string of statistics, but it’s directly relevant to any parents of children or teens and can help them understand how their family screen time habits compare to other families around the country.
How many nights in the past week did you engage in the following activities involving electronic devices while already in bed before going to sleep?
Watch videos:
- None: 49.4%
- 1-2: 26.9%
- 3-4: 10.3%
- 5-7: 13.4%
Play video games:
- None: 71.4%
- 1-2: 16.3%
- 3-4: 6.5%
- 5-7: 5.8%
Play music:
- None: 54.0%
- 1-2: 22%
- 3-4: 10%
- 5-7: 14.1%
Talk or Text:
- None: 66.7%
- 1-2: 19.6%
- 3-4: 7.4%
- 5-7: 6.3%
Look at social media:
- None: 70.1%
- 1-2: 16.5%
- 3-4: 7.1%
- 5-7: 6.2%
Visit chat forums:
- None: 89.4%
- 1-2: 7.0%
- 3-4: 2.1%
- 5-7: 1.5%
General internet browsing:
- None: 79.2%
- 1-2: 15.7%
- 3-4: 3.6%
- 5-7: 1.5%
Studying:
- None: 71.5%
- 1-2: 16.6%
- 3-4: 7.4%
- 5-7: 4.5%
Reading:
- None: 40.0 %
- 1-2: 26.7%
- 3-4: 15.5%
- 5-7: 17.8%
Finally, researchers asked these two questions, in order to further understand how often and what happens when participants experienced sleep disturbance related to their phones/screens:
In the past week, how often have you had phone calls, text messages, or e-mails that wake you after trying to go to sleep?
- None: 83.8%
- 1-2: 12.2%
- 3-4: 4.4%
- 5-7: 2.6%
In the past week, when you woke up during the night, how often have you used your phone or other device to send messages/play games/search or browse the internet/use social media/read or write e-mails?
- None: 80.7%
- 1-2: 12.2%
- 3-4: 4.4%
- 5-7: 2.6%
Congratulations!
You made it – and we think you understand why it was worth the effort.
The answers above can help parents gauge what’s common practice, share the information with their kids, and use it to make a household screen time plan. Parents know that kids need rules to seem and feel fair: when they see that more than eight out of ten kids their age never use their phones or screens in the middle of the night, they may accept screen time restrictions with less fuss.
Now let’s look at the impact of the screen habits reported above.
Screen Time Habits: The Results
Time to rewind to the introduction of this article, and review the questions we indicated most parents ask themselves about screen time, kids, and adolescents:
How much screen time is healthy for my kids?
Does it matter if they have screen time around bedtime?
Are there different guidelines for young kids compared to early adolescents and adolescents?
For an answer to that first general question on screen time, please read the article we link to above – here’s the same link.
For an answer to the second question – yes, it matters. We’ll explain in one moment. As for the third question, we’ll share guidelines for a healthy family screen time plan below. Now for the explanation about why it matters if kids and early adolescents have screen time around bedtime, or engage with screens during the night.
Screen Time Around Bedtime: Sleep Disturbance, Sleep Duration, and Sleep Disorders
Participants who left the ringer on showed:
- Increased sleep disturbance
- Decreased sleep duration
Those who played music and/or talked or texted showed:
- Increased sleep disturbance
- Increased sleep disorders
- Decreased sleep duration
Those who spent time on social media showed:
- Increased sleep disturbance
- Decreased sleep duration
Among those who watched video content, played video games, spent time in chat rooms, or were woken up/used phone to text/call/email in the middle of the night, the study showed:
- Decreased sleep duration
In summary, all screen time measured in this study was associated with shorter sleep duration, while the specific screen behaviors listed above were associated with sleep disorders and sleep disturbance as well as shorter sleep duration. Of all the habits examined in the study, playing music and talking/texting in bed before going to sleep had the greatest impact, with researchers establishing associations with an increase in sleep disorders, increase in sleep disturbance, and a decrease in sleep duration.
That last sentence is informative. Listening to music or sharing a quick message or two seems like it should be harmless. To be clear, these results don’t say listening to music and texting after kids go to bed but before they go to sleep, but they do say those specific habits are associated with outcomes that can, over time, lead to the problems associated with sleep deprivation we share in the second section of this article.
Creating a Family Plan: Advice from the Experts
Here’s some perspective: for adults, sleep doctors recommend turning off all electronic devices at least half an hour before bed and keeping electronic devices or screens out of the bedroom altogether. While this may not be feasible in some families, it’s something to take into consideration, with slight modifications.
For instance, it may not be necessary to keep screens out of the bedroom entirely – think studying, privacy, and other factors important to kids and teens – but a realistic rule may be to keep screens out of bed once they get in bed, but before they turn out the lights.
With all that said, we’ll share screen time guidelines published by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). Since many parents reading this article may have young children in addition to school-age kids and early adolescents, we’ll include guidelines for all ages.
Screen Time for Kids and Adolescents: Sample Guidelines
Birth to 18 months:
- Screen time only for video chatting with family/caregivers/loved ones – like an out-of-town parent, grandparents, aunts and uncles – while accompanied by caregiver/adult.
18 months to two years:
- Screen time only for educational purposes while accompanied by caregiver/adult.
Ages 2 to 5:
- 1 hour total non-educational screen time on weekdays
- 3 hours total non-educational screen time weekends
Ages 6 and up:
- Promote healthy screen time habits: ideally, less than two hours non-educational screen time per day
- Promote recreational activities that don’t involve screens
- No screens during family meals/family activities
- Research, learn, and use parental controls on devices
- Know what kids are watching and doing online
- Resist the urge to use screens to soothe children, interrupt outbursts/tantrums, or in place of a family caregiver of babysitter
- No screens at all – including the bedroom – beginning about an hour or half an hour before bedtime
That last bullet point is probably the hardest component of what experts consider good sleep hygiene to implement, because millions of people around the country have TVs in their bedrooms and watch TV in bed regularly.
Healthy Screen Guidelines Apply to Parents, Too
If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times:
Kids and teens are more likely to do what you do than what you say, and when those things don’t match, they’re likely to default to what you do rather than what you say.
That means that if you spend all day on your phone and fall asleep in front of the TV every night, your kid is likely to do the same thing. The statistics on adult screen time are surprising: in the U.S., studies show adults spend an average of 7 hours and 3 minutes, with about half that time spent on work and half that time spent on non-work activities.
For adults as well as kids and teens, experts recommend less than two hours of non-work screen time per day, and less than an hour of time on social media per day.
If parents follow those guidelines, children are more likely to follow them, too. Therefore, parents who exceed two hours on screens per day may need to reconsider that habit, both for their health and wellbeing and to set a good example for their kids.
In closing, we’ll direct parents to the Stanford University Lifestyle Medicine resource about screen time for adults on this page. Finally, if you’re worried about screen time in your family, and the AACAP guidelines don’t seem feasible for your family, screen time researcher Yada T. Uhls of UCLA, interviewed in Time Magazine, encourages you to ask yourself these questions:
Are you and your kids sleeping well?
Are you eating well?
Is everyone leaving the house regularly and getting enough in-person social time?
Are work and school going well?
Is everyone in the family physically active, given their overall health, taking into consideration any medical restrictions?
If you can answer yes to all these questions, then you can stop worrying about screen time. It’s okay to be proactively concerned, but if all the components of health and wellbeing are in place – and you plan to keep them in place – then it’s more important to focus on what you engage with on screens than how long you or your kids are actually on screens each day. Also, try this idea:
No screens for an hour after you wake up, no screens for an hour before bed.
Give it a try: it might improve life for the whole family.
