Study Says Too Much Screen Time, Too Little Sleep And Exercise Impair Cognitive Development In Children

Oct 03, 2018

Could spending too much screen time on devices harm your child? A study was published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. According to this study, every day many children in the United States spend more than 3.5 hours staring at the screen of a television, computer, smartphone or tablet.

This level of time spent looking at these devices had been shown to be connected to poor cognitive development as well as academic performance. The study included over 4,450 children who were between the ages of eight and 11 years old.

The study used the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth. It involved children from the United States as participants and was conducted by Canadian researchers. The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth states children should have uninterrupted sleep for a minimum of nine to 11 hours each night. They should have under two hours of screen time each day. It also recommends children get at least one hour of physical activity daily. Children who had the best scores of processing speed, language abilities, attention, memory as well as executive function met these benchmarks.

During the study, most children did not meet the benchmarks of the lifestyle guidelines. Only 50 percent followed the sleep recommendations and less than 38 percent met the benchmark for limited screen time. When it came to physical activity, only 18 percent met this benchmark. Researchers were also able to identify many other factors that added to cognition. This included their household's education levels as well as income.

When there was an effort made to meet the recommended lifestyle guidelines, improvements in cognition were experienced by the children. Increasing sleep time as well as limiting screen time were considered major factors in this improvement. There was no association with improvement when following the physical activity guidelines. The researchers were surprised at this finding. They believed it is possible the measure of physical activity may not have been as specific as necessary.

Many people have found these statistics alarming. Others believe their ramifications could be serious. One of the researchers from University of British Columbia believed the evidence suggested appropriate physical activity and sufficient amount of sleep have proven to be part of better academic performance as well as improved reaction time, memory, attention and more. Prior to this study, the association between cognitive development and recreational screen time was not very clear. This type of research is in its early stages. Some suggest the findings of the study may illustrate how excessive screen time can be causing an interruption of essential childhood growth cycles.

Some researchers believe the study shows each minute children spend on screen could easily displace a minute of their sleep. When it comes to evening screen use, it could cause significant impairment when it comes to quality of your child’s sleep.

Some researchers also believe the challenges associated with children and screen time could also contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic. It is believed each of them has been promoted by how profitable it is to the industry as well as convenience to a child's parents. It is also believed the pleasure of children is also a factor. Researchers state this new study could be an indication of serious problems in the future.

The authors of the study believe additional research on this topic needs to be done. It will help people to have a better understanding of the impact screen time has on a child's cognition. Researchers believe the study does not provide enough evidence of a connection between a child's cognition and their screen time. It does provide enough proof that educators, pediatricians, policymakers as well as educators realize limiting recreational screen time is important to your child’s development.

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