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Adjust Screens for Sleep

Tags

Study Skills & Tools Social-Emotional Learning ^Extra-curricular/At-Home All Ages Strategy

Skills

Anxiety Self-regulation Attention

Adjust Screens for Sleep

All students, particularly those who struggle with falling asleep or aren't getting a full night sleep

How To Apply It!

  1. Adapt your use of screens to ensure that they are not interfering with a good night's sleep.
  2. Ideally screens should be turned off 2 hours before bedtime. Realistically, this might not be practical on school nights. As a general rule, just do your best to turn off your screens as early as possible at night.
  3. In the evening, adjust the screen brightness to the lowest setting that you can still see without straining your eyes.
  4. If it is not homework-related, turn off your screens at night. You can use other times of day for leisure screen activities.
  5. If you read before going to bed, use paper books or screens that simulate traditional text.

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

There is substantial research indicating that screens interfere with sleep patterns. Screen time often delays the time that children go to sleep because they are using screens. Another underlying reason is that exposure to the light emissions from screens increases alertness and interferes with our sleep-wake cycles. A good night's sleep is essential for learning and memories to consolidate information and for students to perform at their highest levels the next day. Children with anxiety, depression and executive function weaknesses are often prone to sleep problems, and these students should make extra effort to have a good sleep routine. Awareness of the potential negative impact of screens, and efforts to reduce this impact, can have very positive effects.