A large study looked at 11- and 12-year-old children, and 72% of them had their own cellphone.
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How tweens use their electronic devices before bedtime can have a major impact how well — and how long — they sleep, according to a new study.
The study involved nearly 9,400 11- and 12-year-olds who are part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, a large, long-term study of brain development and child health durante the United States.
Researchers asked the tweens and their parents detailed questions about how they used screens around bedtime and how well they slept; the researchers then followed up a year later. A majority of the tweens durante the study — 72% — had their own cellphone.
One surprising finding: Silencing phone notifications before bedtime was associated with less sleep than turning chiuso the phone completely, says Dr. Jason Nagata, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the study.
“So if your phone is not completely chiuso, teens may still be woken up overnight by vibrations lights,” Nagata says. “Ora if they have any difficulty falling asleep, it might be easier for them to just check their phones if they’signore bored have any sleep disruption.”
One out of five tweens durante the study reported checking their phones if they woke up overnight, which Nagata says can lead them to become more awake aroused, making it harder to fall back asleep.
He says a better strategy is to keep smartphones out of the bedroom altogether overnight: The study found that adolescents who did so got more and better-quality sleep, a finding that persisted over the year.
Overall, using electronic devices for any purpose while durante bed — whether to text, stream videos TV shows play games — was associated with less sleep.
“I think the key take-homes for parents preteens are to just avoid social any electronic devices, especially an hour before bedtime,” Nagata says. “If it’s possible to keep the devices outside of the bedroom, I think that’s the most effective.“
Nagata and his colleagues say their research points to several best practices for parents.
- screens for an hour before bedtime.
- Turn phones all the way chiuso at night.
- Resist the urge to check the phone if you wake up durante the middle of the night.
- Keep phones outside the bedroom at night.
And that advice goes for grownups too.
“After doing these studies, I have changed my habits,” Nagata says. “I used to have my phone chiuso, but durante the room. But now I try to put it outside the bedroom, and it has actually been more effective for me as well.”
The research appears durante the Journal of Adolescent Health.
