Screens, school and sleep: How the pandemic changed teen sleep routines
As schools abruptly shifted online, screen time among children and adolescents sharply increased during the pandemic, upending daily routines and bedtime habits. Stock photo
Texts. Emails. Social media reels and TikToks. Log in here, check this app, reply to that — then pull the phone back out seconds later and start again, forgetting why you reached for it in the first place.
People of all ages have felt extra tethered to their devices during and since the COVID-19 pandemic. But adolescents have felt it particularly deeply, especially when it comes to sleep. When schools abruptly shifted online, screen time among children and adolescents sharply increased, upending daily routines and bedtime habits.
To better understand and quantify that shift, ASU associate professors Connor Sheehan and Sabina Low examined data from more than 26,000 high school students from a Wisconsin county survey. They found that teens stayed up later during the pandemic — nearly one additional school night each week — and that differences between boys’ and girls’ sleep patterns narrowed, reversing pre-pandemic trends when screen use tended to affect boys more.
The study, which builds on a long line of research at Arizona State University’s T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics examining links between sleep, physical and mental health, development and school environments, offers another window into how the pandemic disrupted adolescents’ daily lives.
In honor of Sleep Awareness Month in March, Sheehan and Low discuss what they found and what families can take from the research.
Question: What is uniquely concerning about sleep loss during adolescence compared to adulthood?
Sheehan: Adolescence is a period of rapid biological, physical, social and academic change, and sleep is closely tied to all of it. At the same time, teens have more freedom, and pressure, to stay up late to connect with friends, even as school start times require early wake-ups that don’t match their natural rhythms. Sleep still matters for adults, but we’re more of a finished product; the cake is pretty much baked.
Low: Yes, and during adolescence there is a tendency to fall asleep later, known as the delayed sleep phase. Sleep during adolescence also impacts many important functions, such as puberty and neural plasticity.
Q: Before the pandemic, screen use affected boys’ sleep more than girls’. Why do you think that gap narrowed during COVID-19?
Sheehan: We can’t say for sure based on our data, but the shift appears substantial. Before the pandemic, screen habits differed more by gender, with boys spending more time gaming and girls more on social media. It’s unclear if those distinctions blurred because screens became a primary way to stay connected, or because this was also a period when screens became increasingly addictive, with algorithms designed to keep you playing and scrolling.
Q: What can parents do to help teens build healthier sleep habits in a tech-saturated world?
Low: We are indeed tech-saturated, and this is a struggle that will speak to most parents. I have faced these challenges with my own teenagers. A few tips:
Sleep routine is important. Stay consistent, and try not to deviate beyond two hours on weekends, or it will be hard to adjust during the school week.
- Try to end screen time an hour before bed.
- If necessary, remove devices from the bedroom at night and put them in a designated area. If that is not possible, consider implementing incentives like an allowance for following a sleep schedule.
- Stay alert to other factors that may be affecting sleep, such as anxiety or depression.
- Lastly, remember sleep is one indicator of overall health, and diet (e.g, caffeine, sugars) and physical activity (sports) can also help or hinder sleep.
Q: What questions does this study raise for future research on adolescence, technology and well-being?
Low: It will be interesting to see what changes from the pandemic persist. Technology in its many forms, as well as how we use technology, has ramifications on adolescent mental health, relationships, sleep and cognitive functioning. There is still much to learn about both the positive and negative consequences of growing up in a digitally saturated world.
Sheehan: I'm curious to know to what extent the behaviors were already established, with the algorithms becoming better at keeping everyone scrolling. With countries and states implementing policies to limit social media or screen use for adolescents, it will be interesting to see how teens in those contexts sleep compared to places with more laissez-faire approaches.
At the same time, technology isn’t inherently harmful for adolescents. Many teens found community and shaped their identities online during an isolating period, and that support helped them get through it. I'm teaching students at ASU now who were in high school or middle school during the pandemic, and they seem impressive and resilient.
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