Evening Screen Reduction

Research summary

• Multiple population-based and cohort studies, including a meta-analysis in young children and large cross-sectional studies in adults and youths, consistently find associations between evening screen use and poorer sleep quality or shorter sleep duration.
• A repeated-measures cohort study in youths strengthens this by using night-by-night objective measures rather than relying only on questionnaires.
• However, most studies are cross-sectional or correlational, making it hard to fully separate the effect of screen use itself from related factors like stress, stimulating content, or later bedtimes, a limitation several of the reviewed studies acknowledge directly.
• The overall pattern is consistent, but causal certainty is only moderate.