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You?ve no doubt heard that checking stressful emails on your smartphone at night or reading on your tablet will keep you from getting a good night?s sleep, but new research says that adults aren?t the only ones whose sleep suffers from using screens. Babies and toddlers, who are increasingly watching videos and using apps on touchscreen devices, are sleeping less for it.
A study published in Scientific Reports found that the more infants and toddlers used touchscreens, the less they slept at night. Using screens was also associated with sleeping more during the day and taking longer to fall asleep. In fact, for every hour a day that children ages six months to three years spent using a touchscreen, they lost about 16 minutes of slumber. The U.K.-based researchers behind the study used an online survey to collect sleep and media-consumption information from parents of 715 infants and toddlers. They found that, overall, the children used touchscreens for an average of 24.5 minutes each day. Seventy-five percent of the kids studied used them every day. Generally, the older toddlers got, the more time they spent with touchscreens. Of course, many kids also spent additional time with non-interactive screens, like TV.

Researchers have a few ideas as to why kids might get less shut-eye when they use touchscreens. One theory is that they might be overstimulated by the content. Another suggests that the blue light that?s emitted from the...