Media, Sleep and Memory in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Media usage across children and adolescents is steadily increasing and captures a significant amount of their usual waking time. Excessive media use affects sleep quality and quantity including increased sleep onset latency, night awakenings and overall reduced sleep duration. Healthy sleep is important for overall health, as well as physical and mental performance and disrupted sleep during early childhood and adolescent results in emotional and behavioral consequences including impaired school performance, attention problems and a higher risk for ADHD and obesity. The present review summarizes recent findings related to the effects of media on sleep and memory in children and adolescent and provides practical recommendations for children’s’ and adolescent’s media and sleep behavior.