How Did the Relationship Between Technology Use and Sleep Change During the Pandemic for High Schoolers? Evidence from a County-Wide Sample

Research consistently indicates that adolescents in the 21st century are not getting adequate sleep, which may put them behind developmentally and at risk of poor mental and physical well-being as well as diminished social and academic performance throughout high school. There are elevated concerns regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent development, as it led to remote learning and increased recreational screen use. The present study examines how adolescent nighttime screen/technology usage and sleep patterns shifted before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, including sex-specific patterns. We analyzed the 2018 and 2021 Dane County Youth Assessment (n = 26,244). OLS regression models with interactions and covariates tested how technology use predicted self-reported nights awake past 11:00 p.m. and examined the trends and sex-specific patterns. During the pandemic (2021), participants reported staying awake past 11:00 p.m. nearly one additional school night during the school week compared to the pre-pandemic (2018) sample (b = 0.75, p > 0.01). In addition, while screen usage was significantly more consequential to male sleep in 2018, in the pandemic (2021), there were more muted sex differences, suggesting the influence of technology on sleep was similarly negative for high school boys and girls during the pandemic. The pandemic will likely alter social development in this cohort, and we urge developmental scientists to explore how sleep influences these changes.