Screen Time and Sleep - Quality, Quantity, and Context with Lauren Hale, PhD

Sleep is an essential part of life, and the quality and quantity of a person’s nightly sleep has wide-ranging impacts on cognition, behavior, and health. On this episode of Screen Deep, host Kris Perry discusses children and teens’ sleep and its relationship to digital media with Dr. Lauren Hale, Professor of Family, Population, and Preventative Medicine at Stony Brook University and Founding Editor in Chief of the Sleep Health Journal. 

Dr. Hale provides an overview of research into the impacts of digital media on teens’ sleep, including insights from a 2024 scientific consensus panel that evaluated how different aspects of digital device use influence sleep. She also discusses the societal implications of teens’ poor sleep health, and the policy changes that could improve them.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why sleep is important for cognitive and overall health - and why sleep regularity may be as important as duration
• Which populations are getting less sleep and possible consequences
• What the latest research tells us about technology use and sleep - delayed sleep, sleep duration, impaired sleep quality, digital sleep interruption, and blue light 
• What types of screen use and media content are associated with poorer sleep quality for youth
• Why abolishing Daylight Savings Time and changing school start times may positively impact youth sleep health

For more resources and research on this topic visit the Learn and Explore section of the Children and Screens website (https://www.childrenandscreens.org)

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Music: 'Life in Silico' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au