Experimental effects of light and content from evening screen media use on children's sleep, executive functioning, and emotion regulation

项目总结/摘要 近年来，儿童对屏幕媒体的使用急剧增加。更多的屏幕使用，尤其是在 在夜间，虽然不是明确的，但通常与睡眠中断有关，包括较短的睡眠时间。 睡眠持续时间，入睡困难，整体睡眠质量下降。基于大量的研究表明， 儿童期睡眠健康状况不佳，以有力地预测广泛的不良结果（例如，肥胖症，精神病 障碍，认知和学业表现差，情绪失调，冒险行为增加， 自杀倾向），几乎所有主要儿科健康组织/协会提供的现行指南 建议孩子在睡前一小时内避免使用电子屏幕。虽然可能是直觉， 支持这一准则的经验证据主要是跨部门的。也就是说，晚间屏幕的因果效应 对儿童睡眠和昼夜节律的影响尚未得到充分证实，其机制也未得到充分证实。 睡眠中断可能发生的原因已被阐明。因此，有必要进行实验研究， 专业人员和家长提供循证指导，并为发展研究提供信息。的目标 目前的研究是系统地测试屏幕曝光的影响以及激发媒体内容 对N=200名学龄儿童（8至11岁）的睡眠调节和昼夜节律时间，以及次日 情绪调节和执行功能。我们客观地评估和解释孩子们 白天使用平板电脑的历史将使我们能够准确地隔离晚上使用屏幕对儿童睡眠的影响。 采用4组随机对照设计，包括评估典型睡眠和媒体使用情况， 通过为期3天的实验方案，我们计划：1）系统地测试晚间屏幕媒体使用的效果， 自然家居环境对儿童睡眠时间、睡眠潜伏期和主观睡眠质量的影响; 2） 将实验研究方法从实验室转移到家庭环境中，以研究 屏幕发出的明亮光线以及暴露于激发儿童睡眠的媒体内容、昼夜节律 3）研究晚上使用屏幕对儿童第二天执行的作用 功能和情绪调节。拟议的研究解决了科学领域的几个关键空白， 关于晚间屏幕媒体使用对儿童睡眠健康影响的知识，包括阐明 可能产生潜在负面影响的具体机制。结果可以直接告知 关于所有儿童使用晚间屏幕媒体的国家指导方针和政策。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Children’s screen media use has increased dramatically in recent years. Greater screen use, especially during the evening hours, is routinely, though not unequivocally, associated with disruption of sleep including shorter sleep duration, difficulty falling asleep, and reduced overall sleep quality. Based in a wealth of research showing poor sleep health in childhood to robustly forecast a wide range of adverse outcomes (e.g., obesity, psychiatric disorders, poor cognitive and academic performance, emotion dysregulation, increased risk-taking behaviors, suicidality), current guidelines provided by virtually every major pediatric health organization/association recommend that children avoid use of electronic screens in the hour before bed. While perhaps intuitive, empirical evidence to support this guideline is largely cross-sectional. That is, causal effects of evening screen use on children’s sleep and circadian timing have not been sufficiently demonstrated nor have the mechanism(s) through which sleep disruption may occur been clarified. Experimental studies are therefore necessary to provide professionals and parents with evidence-based guidance and inform developmental research. The goal of the current study is to systematically test the impact of light exposure from screens as well as arousing media content on N=200 school-aged children’s (8 to 11 years) sleep regulation and circadian timing, in addition to next-day emotion regulation and executive functioning. Our novel ability to objectively assess and account for children’s daytime tablet use history will allow us to accurately isolate the effects of evening screen use on children’s sleep. Using a 4-group randomized, controlled design including assessment of typical sleep and media use followed by a 3-day experimental protocol, we plan to: 1) systematically test the effects of evening screen media use in the natural home environment on children’s sleep duration, sleep latency, and subjective sleep quality; 2) translate experimental research methods from the laboratory to the home environment to examine the impact of bright light emitted from screens and exposure to arousing media content on children’s sleep, circadian physiology, and physiological arousal; 3) examine the role of evening screen use on children’s next day executive functioning and emotion regulation. The proposed research addresses several critical gaps in scientific knowledge regarding the impact of evening screen media use on children’s sleep health, including elucidating the specific mechanism(s) through which potential negative impacts may occur. Results may directly inform national guidelines and policies regarding evening screen media use in all children.