Dive Brief:
- British researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 20 recent studies about student device use and sleep quantity, quality and daytime sleepiness, finding cause for concern when it comes to sending devices home with students.
- Education Week reports the researchers found a strong and consistent association between device use at bedtime and poor sleep outcomes, but children who had access to digital devices and didn’t use them before bedtime also had similar negative effects.
- Common Sense Education, which has a digital citizenship curriculum for schools, recommends administrators and teachers incorporate information about the detrimental impact of digital devices on student sleep patterns into their training programs.
Dive Insight:
Sleep is critical for children’s brains and there are a lot of things that can get in the way of it. Blue light from tablets and phones seems to be one. Teenagers’ brains are another. They’re wired to stay up later and sleep later, whether they’re being kept up by the temptations of the online world or not. Some schools have responded to this by proposing to start school later, but a recent protest in Rhode Island proves not all students want their busy schedules interrupted for sleep.
Even if schools cannot come up with a systemic fix to address the issue of childhood sleep, they can provide important information to parents and students about the need for it. Parents should be partners in this issue, and targeted communication strategies can help make it a priority.
