Toddler Screen Use Before Bed and Its Effect on Sleep and Attention: A Randomized Clinical Trial

A, Parent-administered screen time intervention (PASTI) vs no intervention (NI) comparison. B, PASTI vs bedtime box–only comparison. AT indicates antisaccade task; BISQ-R, Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire–Revised; ECBQ, Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire; GT, gap-overlap task; RT, reaction time; VST, visual search task.

aDenotes outcome measures for which the effect size is reversed in the plot as a lower value was better. The original direction of these reversed effect sizes is reported in the text.

Pickard H, Chu P, Essex C, et al. Toddler Screen Use Before Bed and Its Effect on Sleep and Attention: A Randomized Clinical Trial . JAMA Pediatr. Published online October 21, 2024. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.3997

Questions  What is the feasibility and efficacy of conducting a randomized clinical trial of a parent-administered screen time intervention in the hour before bed on objectively measured toddler sleep and attention?

Findings  In this randomized clinical trial including 105 families, the parent-administered screen time intervention proved highly feasible, and pilot efficacy findings suggest small to medium positive effects of screen time removal on objective sleep efficiency, night awakenings, and daytime nap duration but no effect on objective attention measures.

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