Digital Screen Time and Pediatric Sleep: Evidence from a Preregistered Cohort Study
Abstract
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.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
A recent large-scale US study indicated a significant but modest effect for overall screentime and sleep.
“A recent large-scale US study indicated a significant but modest effect for overall screentime and sleep and called for future research to examine effects for specific technologies.11”
From Social media use and adolescent sleep patterns: cross-sectional findings from the UK millennium cohort study (2019) · cites this paper as [11]
Cites
An effect size primer: A guide for clinicians and researchers.
Ferguson, C. J. (2009) · Professional Psychology: Research and Practice · doi:10.1037/a0015808 · Cited by 3,467 · see citing works
Lakens, D. (2017) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550617697177 · Cited by 2,161 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Instead of using statistical significance as a guide, researchers investigating the digital displacement should articulate a Smallest Effect Size of Interest (SESOI), on theoretical and practical grounds before collecting data [33,34].”
BackgroundMethodAn Agenda for Purely Confirmatory Research
Wagenmakers, E.-J., Wetzels, R., Borsboom, D., van der Maas, H. L. J., & Kievit, R. A. (2012) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691612463078 · Cited by 1,042 · see citing works
Przybylski, A. K., & Weinstein, N. (2017) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797616678438 · Cited by 890 · see citing works
Self-citationThe debate over digital technology and young people
Bell, V., Bishop, D. V. M., & Przybylski, A. K. (2015) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.h3064 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Scott, H., Biello, S. M., & Woods, H. C. (2019) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031161 · Cited by 221 · see citing works
Przybylski, A. K., Orben, A., & Weinstein, N. (2020) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2019.06.017 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Self-citationKim, S., Favotto, L., Halladay, J., Wang, L., Boyle, M. H., & Georgiades, K. (2020) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-020-01833-9 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Capturing sleep–wake cycles by using day-to-day smartphone touchscreen interactions
Borger, J. N., Huber, R., & Ghosh, A. (2019) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-019-0147-4 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Nagata, J. M., Singh, G., Yang, J. H., Smith, N., Kiss, O., Ganson, K. T., Testa, A., Jackson, D. B., & Baker, F. C. (2023) · Sleep Health · doi:10.1016/j.sleh.2023.02.005 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Kim, S. Y., Han, S., Park, E.-J., Yoo, H.-J., Park, D., Suh, S., & Shin, Y. M. (2020) · Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine · doi:10.5664/jcsm.8446 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Lee, P. H., Tse, A. C. Y., Wu, C. S. T., Mak, Y. W., & Lee, U. (2021) · Journal of Sleep Research · doi:10.1111/jsr.13213 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Television use and its effects on sleep in early childhood
Helm, A. F., & Spencer, R. M. C. (2019) · Sleep Health · doi:10.1016/j.sleh.2019.02.009 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Whitlock, J., & Masur, P. K. (2019) · JAMA Pediatrics · doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.3191 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
- Authors
- Przybylski, A. K.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Przybylski, Andrew K.
- Venue
- The Journal of Pediatrics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-02
- Volume
- 205
- Pages
- 218-223.e1
- ISSN
- 0022-3476 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2899360019
- Cited by
- 102
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 37.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- The Journal of Pediatrics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Keywords
- screen time, children's sleep, sleep duration, sleep consistency, screen time limits, American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines, contextual factors, child health policy
- MeSH terms
- Screen Time, Adolescent, Child, Child, Preschool, Family Characteristics, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Infant, Male, Motor Activity, Retrospective Studies, Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Television, Time Factors, United States, Prevalence, Video Games, Sedentary Behavior, Self Report, Pediatric Obesity
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
