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Research on the impact of technology use on children less than 6 years old is relatively new and constitutes a relatively small portion of the work on technology and sleep.
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Technology use among young children is related to worse sleep outcomes, including delayed bedtimes, shorter sleep duration, and daytime sleepiness.
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Although little research has been conducted among infants and toddlers, the available evidence suggests that the negative impact of technology on sleep may be stronger among this
Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America
Sleep and Technology in Early Childhood
Section snippets
Key points
Definitions
In this article, I use the term technology as an umbrella term encompassing a variety of media or devices (including television, video games, smartphones, tablets, and computers, either laptop or desktop) and platforms (eg, YouTube, Netflix). The reviewed research will address either the impact of technology exposure per se (eg, overall time with technology, technology use before bedtime) or the effects from exposure to specific types of technology (eg, educational technology, violent
Research
To date, the majority of work investigating the impact of technology on children’s sleep has focused on school-aged children and adolescents (eg,7, 8, 9, 10). This review focuses on the available research focusing on younger children, sometimes using insights from the work conducted among older children.
Considerations and controversies
To understand the impact of technology on children, it is necessary to consider several factors that play mitigating or exacerbating roles. First, technology exposure may have effects owing to the particular content that is viewed or because of the timing or duration or exposure. For example, children’s sleep may suffer more after exposure to a scary movie compared with a light-hearted family movie. Or, children may have a harder time falling asleep after playing an intense, competition-based
Future directions
Much of the work to date has relied on less-than-ideal measures of both children’s technology use and sleep, such as parent reports, which are subject to bias and error. Media diaries are believed to constitute the best possible approach to assessing children’s media use and should be considered in future work. Likewise, parent reports are frequently used to gather information about children’s sleep. More objective measures of sleep, such as actigraphy, should be considered as well, even though
Clinical aspects of technology use and sleep
Clinicians addressing sleep issues among young children should evaluate the extent to which children’s technology use may be contributing to poor sleep hygiene and shortened sleep duration (defined as not meeting the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s49 recommended total daily sleep time hours: 10–13 hours, 11–14 hours, and 12–16 hours for preschoolers, toddlers, and infants, respectively). During interviews with caregivers or via questionnaires, clinicians should obtain a record of the
Summary
Although the body of work is relatively small, research suggests that most technology use is associated with poorer sleep outcomes among children less than 6 years of age (some types of technology have not yet been extensively studied in relation to sleep, such as video-calling platforms). The limited longitudinal work further suggests that technology use causes sleep disturbances in this population. These associations are evident regardless of the type of technology that has been studied,
Clinics care points
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Because parental concern over the impact of technology on children’s sleep is low,51 clinicians should educate caregivers on the disruptive qualities of technology for sleep.
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During parent interviews or in parent questionnaires, clinicians should assess children’s technology habits when determining the source of young children’s sleep problems. In particular, clinicians should ask parents to (1) estimate the amount of time their child spends with media (during the day, in the evening, and before
Disclosure
The author has nothing to disclose.
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