Interactive vs passive screen time and nighttime sleep duration among school-aged children

Background: Insufficient sleep among school-aged children is a growing concern, as numerous studies have shown that chronic short sleep duration increases the risk of poor academic performance and specific adverse health outcomes. We examined the association between weekday nighttime sleep duration and 3 types of screen exposure: television, computer use, and video gaming. Methods: We used age 9 data from an ethnically diverse national birth cohort study, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, to assess the association between screen time and sleep duration among 9-year-olds, using screen time data reported by both the child (n = 3269) and by the child's primary caregiver (n = 2770). Results: Within the child-reported models, children who watched more than 2 hours of television per day had shorter sleep duration by approximately 11 minutes per night compared to those who watched less than 2 hours of television (β = - 0.18; P < .001). Using the caregiver-reported models, both television and computer use were associated with reduced sleep duration. For both child- and parent-reported screen time measures, we did not find statistically significant differences in effect size across various types of screen time. Conclusions: Screen time from televisions and computers is associated with reduced sleep duration among 9-year-olds, using 2 sources of estimates of screen time exposure (child and parent reports). No specific type or use of screen time resulted in significantly shorter sleep duration than another, suggesting that caution should be advised against excessive use of all screens.