Did you know that one study showed that for every additional hour of screen time children 6 months to 3 years had about 15 minutes less total sleep (about 26 minutes less overnight and 10 minutes more during the day)? Touchscreen use was also associated with infants and toddlers taking a longer time to fall asleep. It is important to remember, though, that this research is correlational, and the information was collected via survey. That means, overall, that although these things are related, they do not explain why using a touchscreen device might be associated with less sleep. Dr. Michael Gradisar suggested that a variety of factors, including daytime sleep, evening noise, and evening exposure to artificial light, might have also contributed to a baby’s sleep. He also commented that following a group of children over a longer period of time to see if touchscreen use at a very young age contributes to sleep problems over time.
Read the full article by George Dvorsky at Gizmodo.