LAUSR

Media use, such as television viewing and computer use, has been associated with insufficient sleep among children. Analyses used data collected from parents of children aged 3-17 years via the National Survey of Children’s Health in 2016 and 2017 (N=60,547). The prevalence of age-specific short sleep duration (<10 hours for ages 3-5 years, <9 hours for ages 6-12 years, and <8 hours for ages 13-17 years) was calculated by time spent (none, <1 hour, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, ≥4 hours) in front of a television (television time) and with computers or other electronic devices not for homework (computer time) on an average weekday. The prevalence of short sleep duration was also calculated adjusting for child sex and race/ethnicity, household income, parental education, special health care needs, general health, and bedtime regularity. The prevalence of short sleep duration was 35% for ages 3-5 years, 37% for ages 6-12 years, and 32% for ages 13-17 years. There was a significant linear relationship between both television and computer time and short sleep duration prevalence for all age groups, with the exception of television time for 13-17 year olds. For ages 3-5 years, prevalence of short sleep duration ranged from 18% (none) to 48% (≥4 hours) for television time (linear trend p<0.0001) and 23% (none) to 49% (≥4 hours) for computer time (linear trend p<0.0001). For ages 6-12 years, prevalence ranged from 23% (none) to 57% (≥4 hours) for television time (linear trend p<0.0001) and 26% (none) to 58% (≥4 hours) for computer time (linear trend p<0.0001). For ages 13-17 years, prevalence ranged from 15% (none) to 41% (≥4 hours) for computer time (linear trend p<0.0001). The associations remained significant after adjustment for covariates. Reducing media use may increase sleep duration for children. The association between media use and sleep duration is similar for television and computer time for younger children; however, focusing on recreational computer use may be beneficial among teens.