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The Rare Slam Dunk? Blue Light Before Bed
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
July 14, 2024

The Rare Slam Dunk? Blue Light Before Bed

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I spend A LOT of time on this blog debunking “research-based” certainties.

No, handwriting isn’t obviously better than laptops for taking notes.

No, the “jigsaw method” isn’t a certain winner.

No, “the ten minute rule” isn’t a rule, and doesn’t last ten minutes.

No, dopytocin isn’t worth your attention. (Ok, I made up the word “dopytocin.” The blog post explains why.)

And so forth.

For that reason, I was DELIGHTED to discover a strong “research-based” claim that might hold up to scrutiny. Here’s the story…

The Quest Begins…

A colleague posted on eXTwitter a simple question; it went something like this:

I’ve always heard that “blue light from screens before bed” interferes with sleep — in fact, I’ve heard “science says so.” But: I just realized that I don’t actually know anything about the science. Now I’m wondering if it’s true…

Well, NOW YOU’VE GOT MY ATTENTION.

I too have frequently heard the “blue light before bed” claim. I too had understood that “research says so.” I too had never explored that research. It’s obviously time to saddle up.

I confess I did so with a small sense of dismay.

Small toddler sitting on the bed with special effects from ipad

By nature, I’m not a contrarian. I don’t want to go around saying “that thing that everyone believes is ‘based on science’ has no good research support that I can find.” I’m not trying to lose friends and upset people.

But, as you can see from the list above, LOTS of people say “you should do X because research proves Y” — even though research REALLY does not consistently support Y. (Did I mention the “ten minute rule”?)

Fearing that I would — once again — find myself contradicting commonly held wisdom, I dove in.

As is so often the case, I started at elicit.org. (Important note: NOT illicit.org. I have no idea what’s at illicit.org…but the idea makes me nervous. This is a G-rated blog!)

I put this question into its search box: “Does blue light from screens interfere with sleep?”

And I held my breath…

Treasure Unveiled

Come to find out: elicit.org has strong opinions!

Blue light from screens has been shown to interfere with sleep in several ways. It can shorten and worsen sleep quality, delay the onset of sleep, and increase feelings of fatigue (Kurek 2023). However, using amber filters on smartphone screens can improve sleep quality by blocking the short-wavelength blue light (Mortazavi 2018).

Wearing color-tinted lenses to filter short-wavelength light exposure before sleep may also improve sleep, particularly in individuals with certain conditions (Shechter 2020). Exposure to blue-enriched light at low room light levels can impact homeostatic sleep regulation, reducing frontal slow wave activity during the first non-rapid eye movement episode (Chellappa 2013).

I like Elicit because it provides an ENORMOUS amount of data. I won’t attempt to list or summarize all the studies it highlighted. But I’ll point to a few factors that made this claim especially compelling.

Boundary conditions: studies have found this claim to be true across a variety of age groups. This conclusion doesn’t apply simply to a niche-y cohort (say, people in Atlanta who own bison farms); it applies wherever we look.

Positive and negative findings: studies show both that more blue light interferes with sleep and that blocking blue light improves sleep.

Recency: these studies all come from the last decade. In other words: Elicit didn’t pull them up from the late ’80s. We’re talking about the most recent findings here.

I could go on.

Don’t Stop Now

I believe it was Adam Grant who wrote:

Be the kind of person who wants to hear what s/he doesn’t want to hear.

That is: when I start to believe a particular “research-based” claim, I should look hard for contradictory evidence.

If the evidence in favor outweighs the evidence against — and only if the evidence in favor outweighs the evidence against — can I start to believe the claim.

So, I started looking for contradictory evidence.

Here’s an easy strategy: google the claim with the word “controversy.” As in:

“Blue light interferes with sleep controversy”

or

“blue light interferes with sleep myth”

If such a controvery exists, then that google search should find it.

Sure enough, those two searches started to raise some interesting doubts.

I found two articles in the popular press — one in Time magazine, the other in Salon — pointing to this recent study. In it, researchers studied mice and found that yellow light — not blue light — seems the likelier candidate to be interfering with sleep.

Honestly, I found the technical language almost impenetrable, but I think the argument is: yellow light looks more like daylight, and blue light looks more like twilight. So: yellow light (but not blue light) is likelier to interfere with the various chemical processes that point the brain toward sleep. And: that’s what they found with the mice.

Of course, studies in mice are intersting but are never conclusive. (One of my research mottos: “Never, never, never change your teaching practice based on research into non-human animals.”)

So, what happens when we test the yellow-light/blue-light hypothesis in humans?

So Glad You Asked…

Inspired by that mouse study, another researched checked out the hypothesis in humans. She measured the effects of evening exposure to light along various wavelengths — yellow, yellow/blue, blue — and found…

…nada.

As in, no wavelength combo had a different effect than any other.

However — this is an important “however” — the study included exactly 16 people. So, these results deserve notice, but don’t overturn all those other studies about the dangers of blue-light.

After all this back-n-forth, where do all these research findings leave us?

First: we do indeed have LOTS of research suggesting that blue light interferes with sleep.

Second: that research has been questioned recently and plausibly. But, those plausible questions don’t (yet) have lots of mojo. Mice + 16 people don’t add up to a fully persuasive case.

By this point, I’ve spent about three hours noodling this question about, and I’m coming around to this point of view:

Maybe the problem isn’t the blue light; maybe it’s the BRIGHT light. Yellow, blue, pink, whatever.

So, rather than buy special glasses or install light filters, I should put down my iPad and read from paper once I get in bed.

I should say that this conclusion isn’t exactly “research based.” Instead, it’s a way of accepting a muddle in the scientific results, and trying to find a good way forward.

This approach guides me in my classroom work, and now it will guide me when it comes to my Kindle as well.

Earworms and Sleep: What Will They Research Next?
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
November 06, 2022

Earworms and Sleep: What Will They Research Next?

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Just last week, I spoke with middle- and upper-school students about learning.

Student lying in bed listening to music on earphones

We all know — and these students certainly know — that learning is hard. So, does cognitive science have any practical suggestions to help them study and learn?

Yes, reader, it does.

We know that retrieval practice helps learning much more than simple review.

We know that multitasking really isn’t a thing.

And, we know that exercise and sleep really help learning.

This last point — the importance of sleep — can be tricky.

After all, students say that they don’t have time to sleep — they have too much homework.*

Several students asked me: “I’m having trouble falling asleep. What do you suggest?”

In the moment, I suggested having a routine. Go to bed at the same time every night (as much as possible).

But, just a few days ago, a new study came across my desk…

Music and Sleep

I’ve often written about Dr. Michael Scullin’s research (for instance, here and here). He typically researches really practical questions. And, he studies and writes about them in unusually clear ways.

So, I’m a fan.

His most recent study looked at an unexpected topic: earworms.

You know: those infuriating tunes that get stuck in your head.

You just can’t get rid of them. (No, I’m not going to mention a song about very young scary fish that have huge teeth and eat seals and occasionally terroize people. “Doo doo doo doo doo doo.”)

What effect do earworms have on sleep?

Questions and Answers

Research into sleep can get quite technical. We start talking about “spindle detection” and “polysomnography” and “frontal slow oscillation activity.”

Rather than go into the details, I’ll offer a quick summary of the conclusions:

First: survey results suggest that most people (87%!) think that listening to music will improve sleep (or, at least, not harm it).

However — a big however — people who reported listening to relatively more music also report relatively lower sleep quality.

Second: the same survey results suggest that “earworms” make up a big part of this problem.

That is: the more music I listen to, the more earworms I experience. And, the more earworms I experience, the worse I sleep.

YIKES.

Third: you might think that music with lyrics results in more earworms than music without lyrics. Scullin’s team, in fact, thinks that’s the “intuitive view.”

Well, as so often happens, our intuitions are wrong.

Believe it or not, people who listen to instrumental versions of popular songs have more earworms — and worse sleep — than those who listen to the songs themelves.

So, What To Do?

What advice should we be giving students about sleep — other than, “get at least 8 hours”?

Scullin’s team sums up their study this way:

There are few behaviors as prevalent in young adults as listening to music, and many regularly listen to music as part of their bedtime routine. Listening to music feels relaxing, but familiar and repetitive music can trigger involuntary musical imagery that worsens sleep quality and daytime functioning.

In other words: to reduce earworms and sleep better, don’t listen to music before going to sleep. And, instrumental versions of popular songs seem to be especially likely to generate earworms.

I can’t believe I’m typing this, but: Listener beware!

* When students say to me, “I can’t sleep, I have too much homework,” I say, “Let’s think about this:

‘Homework’ is anything that helps you learn more.

Sleep helps you learn more.

Therefore, sleep is homework.

Do your sleep homework, and you will learn more.”

Scullin, M. K., Gao, C., & Fillmore, P. (2021). Bedtime music, involuntary musical imagery, and sleep. Psychological Science, 32(7), 985-997.

“How to Study Less and Learn More”: Explaining Learning Strategies to our Students
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
June 16, 2020

“How to Study Less and Learn More”: Explaining Learning Strategies to our Students

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Because cognitive science gives us such good guidance about learning, we want to share that information with our students.

“Study THIS WAY!” we cry. “Research says so!”

Alas, all too often, students don’t follow our advice.

A key part of the problem: the research that supports our advice is — ahem — really complicated and abstract. We might find it convincing, but our students’ eyes glaze over when we try to explain.

Because I talk frequently talk with students about brain research, I’m always on the lookout for research that…

… is methodologically sound,

… supports useful studying advice, and

… is easy to explain.

I’ve found such a study [updated link], and I think we can explain it to our students quite easily.

Two Are Better Than One

We all know the research showing that sleep helps consolidate long-term memory formation (fun studies here).

We all know the research showing that spreading practice out is better than doing it all at once (fascinating research here).

How about doing both? How about doing two study sessions, and sleeping in between them?

If we could convince our students to adopt those two strategies, that would be GREAT.

And, the research necessary to test that advice is — conceptually, at least — easy to do.

Students learned a topic: French-Swahili word pairs. (This research was done in France.)

Half of them did that at 9 am, and then tested themselves 12 hours later, at 9 pm. (Note: they did not sleep between these two sessions.)

How many times did these non-sleepers have to go through their flashcards to get all the answers right?

On average, they reviewed flashcards 5.8 times to get all those word pairs right. (For the sake of simplicity, let’s just call that 6.)

The other half learned the French-Swahili word pairs at 9 pm. They then got a good night’s sleep, and tested themselves 12 hours later, at 9 am.

How many times did the sleepers go through flashcards to get all the word pairs right? On average, they got them all right on the third attempt.

That’s right: instead of 6 review sessions, they needed 3.

Can We Do Better?

Okay, so far this study is easy to explain and shows real promise. Because they spread practice out AND slept, they cut study time IN HALF to get all the answers right.

But, so far this research measures learning 12 hours later. That’s not really learning. What happens if we test them later?

Specifically, what happens if we test them 6 months later?

Hold onto your hat.

When the researchers retested these students, the non-sleepers remembered 4 of those word pairs. The sleepers remembered 8 pairs.

So: HALF as much review resulted in TWICE as much learning 6 MONTHS later.

The Headline Please

When I talk with students about brain research, I start with this question: “Would you like to study less and learn more?”

I have yet to meet the student who doesn’t get behind that goal.

This easy-to-explain study shows students that half as much review leads to twice as much memory formation — if they both spread practice out over time and sleep between review sessions.

I think we have a winner.

Music and Memory: A Learning Strategy?
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
May 15, 2020

Music and Memory: A Learning Strategy?

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Ever since the “Mozart Effect” was debunked, teachers have wanted to understand the relationship between music and learning.

If simply listening to music doesn’t “make us smarter” in some abstract way, can we use music strategically to help us learn specific subjects or topics?

A group of researchers at Baylor University wondered if the key is sleep.

That is: if students learn a topic while listening to (quiet) music, and then listen to that same music while they sleep, will it cause the brain to replay the academic content associated with the music? And, will that replay help students learn?

Intriguing, no?

This technique — called “targeted memory reactivation” — has been studied before. But, most of that research uses odors to reactivate memories.

That is: students learn X with the scent of roses in the background. That night while they sleep, the scent of roses is piped into the room. When they’re tested the next day — voila! — they remember more X than the students who didn’t get the “targeted memory reactivation” at night.

Of course, using odors for such reactivation is interesting in sleep labs. But it might not be very practical for the rest of us. So, researchers wondered if music would also reactivate memories.

The Research

Chenlu Gao, Paul Fillmore, Michael K. Scullin asked students to watch a 30-minute interactive video lecture on economics. During that lecture, classical music played quietly in the background. (The sound level was “soft background noise in a library.”)

So: students’ brains associated the music — Beethoven, Vivaldi, Chopin — with the topic — economics.

That night, while they slept, half of the students heard that same music played again. The other half heard white noise instead. The music/white noise started once students entered a particular phase of sleep, called “slow wave sleep.” (In this case, slow wave sleep began about 35 minutes after they fell asleep.)

Gao, Fillmore, and Scullin wanted to know:

Compared to students who heard white noise while sleeping, would the students who heard the music remember the lecture better?

Would they be able to apply its principles better?

Might there be a gender difference in those results?

So: what effect did Beethoven have?

The Results

Sure enough, targeted memory reactivation had interesting and measurable effects.

First: the next morning, students who heard music at night were likelier to “pass” a quiz (by scoring 70%) than those who didn’t.

Second: those differences came largely in two categories. The music helped women (but not men). And the music helped students answer application questions (but not factual questions).

Third: researchers measured students’ brain activity during sleep. In brief, students who heard music had different brain wave patterns than those who heard the white noise. And, those who did better on the quizzes had different patterns than those who didn’t.

These results get SUPER technical. But the headline is: we can quite plausibly connect mental behaviors (answers to quizzes) to neurobiological behaviors (“theta power”).

Fourth (This is really important): Researchers found NO DIFFERENCES when they tested the students nine months later. So, this targeted memory reactivation (with music) produced a short-term difference, but not a long-term one.

Implications for Teaching and Learning

This musical version of targeted memory reactivation feels temptingly practical. But: trying it out in real life requires some extrapolation and some technology.

I briefly corresponded with the lead researcher, Michael Scullin, about translating this technique from the sleep lab to everyday life. Here’s a quick overview of key points:

PROBLEM: In this study, students heard the music as they first learned the material. But, it’s REALLY unlikely that teachers/professors will play music while they teach. So, how can we apply use targeted memory reactivation in a more typical learning situation?

SOLUTION: The technique just might work if students play the right kind of music while they study, and then replay that music while they sleep. In this case, “the right kind of music” means instrumental, not distracting, relatively quiet.

However, this approach probably won’t work if students are otherwise distracted — by cellphones or video games, say — while they study.

PROBLEM: Presumably I can’t use the same piece of music to reactivate all memories of all the academic topics I want to learn. Does that mean I have to build some huge library of music cues: this Beethoven piece to recall the Battle of Bunker Hill, that Chopin piece to practice balancing chemical equations?

SOLUTION: Alas, it’s true: each piece of music would be distinctively paired with a particular topic. (This conclusion hasn’t been tested, but is likely true.)

So, the best compromise is probably this: choose the topics that are most difficult to understand or remember, and use the technique sparingly for that subset of academic information.

PROBLEM: Won’t playing music at night keep students awake, or wake them up?

SOLUTION: That’s an important technical question. Ideally, the music would play quietly.  And, as we saw in the research described above, it would start only after slow wave sleep started.

So, whatever technology the students have, they should program it to start the music at very low levels — ideally starting about 30 minutes after they fall asleep.

QUESTION: The technique helped in the short term, but not nine months later. Can we use targeted memory reactivation to consolidate learning over the long term?

ANSWER: We haven’t tested that yet. It seems plausible (even likely?) that repeating the music over time would help. That is: listening to that music once a fortnight for a few months might really firm up memories.

But, again, that approach hasn’t been tested. I (Andrew Watson, not Michael Scullin) am speculating that it might work. But we don’t know.

In Sum…

This research — contrary to lots of earlier work — suggests that we might be able to learn while we sleep.

But, the specifics are very much in the early days. Targeted memory reactivation clearly produces benefits in the sleep lab. Its application to everyday teaching and learning needs to be explored, practiced, and refined.

I wrote about another one of Scullin’s studies a year ago. If you’d like some advice on how to fall asleep faster, click here.

How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine… for Now by Stanislas Dehaene
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
April 21, 2020

How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine… for Now by Stanislas Dehaene

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What is learning and how do we accomplish it? Stanislas Dehaene, a cognitive neuropsychologist and professor at the Collège de France, addresses these questions in How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine… for Now. He defines learning as the process of forming an internal model of the outside world and describes four critical elements of learning—attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation. Human brains are more efficient learners than computers or other species because they are so skilled in reasoning about probabilities and extracting abstract principles from observations. Our ability to learn, especially from one another, allows us to adapt to unpredictable circumstances and is responsible for our success as a species. This book will be of interest to individuals wishing to better understand learning, how humans do it well, and implications of brain development and functioning for learning.

Dehaene contends that babies are not born as blank slates, which is important since learning requires possessing a model of the world. Further, they efficiently refine their naïve theories with experience. He reviews evidence showing that babies are born with evolutionarily programmed knowledge about, for example, the continuity of time and space, relative quantities, and the importance of faces. Additionally, learning (e.g., of language) starts in the womb.

Just as babies are born with theories about the world, they are born also with major brain structures are already in place. Still, brain development is experience dependent. Dehaene discusses “sensitive periods,” or periods of time when brain areas are especially plastic. Areas of the brain involved in supporting our senses lose plasticity first, while areas involved in our most complex cognitive functions remain plastic the longest. He argues that only extreme brain differences affect differences in cognition and that generally there is only minor variability among peoples’ brains. He shows also that there is never complete determinism from genes; experience and learning can significantly change the brain.

 

Our great ability to be learners has been key to human success. This ability, Dehaene suggests, is primarily built upon our ability to attend to our focus on what matters, our curiosity and ability to actively engage, our ability to correct our understanding in the face of mistakes, and our ability to consolidate or automate what we have learned. Attention involves selecting information on which to focus, amplifying that information, and tuning out other information. We are unlikely to learn things to which we do not attend, which is why it is so important for teachers to attend to students’ attention.

Information that is processed with greater depth will be more deeply understand and better remembered. As such, reducing passive learning, inspiring curiosity and question-asking, and creating structured opportunities to learn via discovery are important. Learning occurs when we are surprised and make mistakes. As such, mistakes should not be penalized, but rather the specific error should be quickly noted for the learner.

Testing, especially when spaced out frequently, can promote learning and retention by allowing mistakes to occur and be corrected frequently. When skills or knowledge transition from being slowly and consciously processed to quickly and automatically processed learning has occurred. That is, we must consolidate what we learn.

Sleep is key to consolidation. When sleeping we strengthen existing knowledge, and we record it in a more abstract way, which can allow for greater insight. Improving the length and quality of young people’s sleep is a powerful way to improve their learning.

Dehaene concludes by reminding his readers that people do not reach their full potential if their environment is not set-up to support them in doing so. As such, he offers several tips for supporting early learning. These include taking advantage of infants’ naïve intuitions, offering diverse, rich environments, attending to learner’s attention, promoting curiosity and effort, making learning feel fun and challenging, setting expectations and offering feedback, and sleeping. He suggests that the enterprise of education should be guided by interdisciplinary scientific research. For example, he calls for providing teachers with training in the science of learning to help them in their work. How We Learn is an expert scholar’s interesting dive into fundamental and important questions about learning.

Dehaene, S. (2020). How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine… for Now. Viking.

Sleep Is Essential. And, COMPLICATED.
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
September 01, 2019

Sleep Is Essential. And, COMPLICATED.

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My cat and I enjoy blogging about sleep, for the obvious reason that sleep is delicious.

And, of course, essential for learning.

Most often, I’ve written about the importance of high school start times. Occasionally, I write about naps as well. For instance, a recent study in Brazil found that in-school naps promoted learning. (My cat was pleased, but not surprised.)

I’ve come across two studies recently that help us think about sleep (and its relatives) in new ways.

Study #1: Memory Benefits of “Brief Wakeful Resting”

We’ve got lots of research showing that naps promote learning. Heck: even a 6-minute nap enhances subsequent learning. (Not joking.)

Let’s push the envelope on this question. If a six minute nap helps learners remember, perhaps actual sleep isn’t essential. Perhaps a period of mental down time might do the job.

For instance: maybe a ten minute period of “brief wakeful resting” might be enough to promote better learning.

Sure enough, in this study, participants remembered a story better if they “reste[ed] quietly with their eyes closed in the darkened testing room for ten minutes” than if they engaged in active cognitive task.

In fact, they remembered the story better a week later. In other words: this benefit wasn’t merely temporary, but lasting.

The teaching implications here are intriguing.

Should we build in brief intervals of “wakeful rest” after complex lessons? Should we redesign school schedules to allow such breaks?

At present, we don’t really know–because this research was conducted with 70-year-olds. Now, I have nothing against 70-year-olds. Some of my best parents have been in their 70s. But, few of us teach 70-year-olds.

So, I hope that this research will be tried with younger learners. Perhaps we might find a whole new way to organize the school day.

Study #2: The Best Way to Sleep Too Little

You read that right. Is there a better way to get insufficient sleep?

Of course, we know that adolescents simply don’t sleep enough. (Did I mention high-school start times?)

We’ve got lots of research showing that they benefit from more sleep. For instance, we know that they learn more if they get afternoon naps.

But: what if we could keep the total amount of sleep constant, and change the sleep schedule? Is there a better way to get too little sleep?

Researchers tested this question in Singapore. They had one group of adolescents get 6.5 hours of night-time sleep during the week, and 9 hours of sleep over the weekend.

In other words: like many teens, they’re just not sleeping enough on school nights.

Researchers had a second group of students sleep 5 hours at night and take a 1.5 hour nap during the day.

That is: they also got 6.5 hours of sleep–but that total amount of sleep was divided into night-time sleep and a nap.

Did that make a difference?

Results, and Implications

Sure enough, the group that slept 5 hours at night and 1.5 hours during the day showed superior cognitive function, compared to the group that slept 6.5 hours straight through at night.

More specifically, they did better on visual learning tasks, and on factual learning tasks.

In other words: they had a less-than-optimal amount of sleep. But, they had a better schedule for their less-than-optimal-sleep.

What are the implications?

My own view is: this study gives us reason to believe that afternoon naps will benefit adolescents.

Either teens will get more sleep–which will benefit them.

Or, even if they foolishly sleep less at night knowing they can nap during the day, this split-sleep schedule will still help them learn.

That’s as close to “win/win” as we get with teenagers and sleep.

So, what’s next?

In my experience, most teens currently use afternoons to practice their extra-curriculars: sports, or theater, or debate. That is: if we encourage them to do more afternoon napping, we necessarily leave them less time to do these other things.

For this reason, I hope that soon we’ll see research comparing students who nap to students who exercise.

Information about those bigger-picture trade-offs could give schools, teachers, and parents helpful–and practical–guidance.

Naps In Schools (Just Might) Improve Classroom Learning
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
July 20, 2019

Naps In Schools (Just Might) Improve Classroom Learning

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I like a good nap. I’m not sure there’s such a thing as a bad nap.

But for this blog we must ask: can naps benefit learning?

We’ve written often about the importance of a good night’s sleep for learning. But, nap sleep might not have the same benefits as nighttime sleep.

Of course, we do have suggestive studies from the sleep lab. This study, for instance, shows that naps including both slow-wave sleep and REM sleep do boost learning.

But, what happens when we test naps in school? Do we show benefits there?

In other words: do actual students learning actual school stuff from actual teachers benefit from naps at school?

A Promising Start

This study from Brazil answers those questions with a resounding YES.

Researchers had 5th graders study either history or science during the first period of the day. Some napped during the 2nd period, while others studied another topic.

Over the course of six weeks, students learned more on the days that they napped compared to the days they didn’t. On average, they scored 10% higher on the content taught pre-nap.

This finding held true for longer naps (between 30 and 60 minutes), but not shorter naps (less than 30 minutes).

Slight Hesitations

Long-time readers know that I try to be especially skeptical about research findings that I want to be true. Because I like naps so much, I’m pushing myself to be skeptical here. For that reason, I raise these questions:

First: the study includes 24 students. That’s 24 better than 0, but it’s still quite a small study. I hope researchers follow this up with a few hundred students.

Second: I wonder about cultural influences. Does napping have a role in Brazilian culture that differs from its role others? I’m not sure why cultural influences would change the benefits of napping, but I’d like to see this research replicated in other cultures.

Third: This “nap” comes quite early in the morning: from 8:10 to 9:20 AM. I would have thought post-lunch naps to be more beneficial. The researchers explain that school begins quite early in Brazil — but, the timing of naps should clearly be studied.

School Implications

Despite my attempts at skepticism, I do think we should seriously consider investigating this question at scale. If students could in fact learn information better by sleeping at school, the benefits to both health and cognition could be dramatic.

After all, I’ve been “studying” naps on my own for years, and can report highly positive results.

More Contradictions in the Adolescent Sleep/Technology Debate
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
May 27, 2019

More Contradictions in the Adolescent Sleep/Technology Debate

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A month ago, I described an impressively large study (17,000+ adolescents) looking at the effects of technology on adolescent sleep and well being.

As I summed it up in the title of that post: “Surprise! Screen time (even before bed) doesn’t harm adolescents.”

Today, I’m linking to another large study (6600+ adolescents) showing … just the opposite.

The main findings for this study was that late-night technology use — especially once the room lights were off — predicted a lower “health-related quality of life” for adolescents.

At this point, I’m frankly flummoxed. I just don’t know how to sort out the contradictory research findings in this field.

For the time being, to preserve sanity, I’d keep these main points in mind:

First: don’t panic. The media LOVE to hype stories about this and that terrible result of technology. Most research I see doesn’t bear that out.

Second: don’t focus on averages. Focuses on the child, or the children, in front of you.

Is your teen not getting enough sleep? Try fixing that problem by limiting screen time. If she is getting enough sleep, no need to worry!

Is your student body managing their iPhones well? If yes, it’s all good! If no, then you can develop a policy to make things better.

Until we get clearer and more consistent research findings, I think we should respond — calmly — to the children right in front of us.

Surprise: Screen Time (Even Before Bed) Doesn’t Harm Adolescents
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
April 14, 2019

Surprise: Screen Time (Even Before Bed) Doesn’t Harm Adolescents

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We’ve got lots of research on the complexity of adolescent life. And: lots of research on the importance of sleep.

We’ve also got some research showing that technology can clutter our cognitive processes. (To be clear: technology might also be fantastically useful.)

So, what happens when you put all that together and ask about technology and adolescent well-being?

Predictions

I myself would have made two predictions:

One: except at the very extreme end of screen use, I would have doubted technology time matters much for adolescent well-being. Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of studies suggesting that teens do just fine — even socially — when they’re often on line.

In brief: I’ve heard lots of exaggerated concerns, but little persuasive data behind them.

Two: sleep is, of course, essential for human well-being. We can’t think or learn well without it. Heck, we can’t function very well without it.

And, we’ve got research showing that the light from screens delays melatonin onset — and therefore makes it hard to fall asleep.

For those reasons, I would have predicted that screen time before bed — especially LOTS of screen time before bed — would make life hard for adolescents.

The Findings

According to this review, I’m half right. And: not the half I was confident about.

A study that looked at more than 17,000 adolescents in the US, England, and Ireland found that technology use generally didn’t affect adolescent well-being.

(More precisely, they found that screen time accounted for less than 1% of the difference in adolescent well-being.)

And — SURPRISE — they found that technology use before bed had no statistically significant effect.

Amazingly, even one hour of screen time produced no ill effects in this study.

What Teachers and Parents Should (and Should Not) Do

This study reconfirms the point that screen time — except extreme amounts — probably isn’t hurting teens. Even pre-bedtime screens aren’t such a big deal.

(If you’re still having trouble wrapping your head around that second point, don’t worry. I am too.)

So, what should we do?

Well, if we want to improve adolescent well-being, we should NOT focus our efforts on changing their technology habits. After all, if this study is correct, even an optimal change would improve their well-being by less than 1%.

That is: we should NOT be alarmed by the alarmists.

Instead, we should find out what really is stressing them out and focus on those problems instead.

As I find persuasive, research-based evidence to answer that question, this blog will let you know.

The Best (Counter-intuitive) Sleep Advice You’ll Get This Year
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
March 20, 2019

The Best (Counter-intuitive) Sleep Advice You’ll Get This Year

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Most of us — and most of our students — need more sleep.

One reason we’re short on z’s: even once we get in bed, the stresses of the day keep us anxiously awake.

We could get more sleep if we could de-stress, and fall asleep faster.

But: how would we do that?

So Crazy, It Just Might Work

We’ve written before about “dumping” as a strategy to reduce stress before exams.

Could a similar strategy work before we go to bed?

Michael Scullin and colleagues hypothesized that students might stress about upcoming tasks. If so, they might feel less stress if they could somehow get a handle on those tasks.

Perhaps, to get that handle, students could make a to-do list of upcoming responsibilities.

To test his hypothesis, Scullin worked with adults (18-30) right before bed. Half of them wrote specific lists of their accomplishments during the day. The other half wrote specific lists of impending to-dos.

So, What Happened?

Of course, it’s possible this technique might backfire. If I write down tomorrow’s responsibilities, then I might ramp up my stress level as I worry about getting them done.

In this case, however, that’s not what happened.

On average, students who wrote to-do lists fell asleep ten minutes faster than those who cataloged their accomplishments.

(These results conceptually mirror those pre-exam stress studies, which show that “dumping” before an exam increases exam performance.)

I particularly like Scullin’s technique, because it’s so gosh-darn practical. Simply put, students can do this. It took only five minutes. And, it helped!

Because this is the first study looking at this technique, we don’t know about boundary conditions. I myself assume that, at some age, children are too young to be kept awake by their mental list of tomorrow’s responsibilities. If that’s true, perhaps some alternate form of writing might help.

Until we know about those boundary conditions, we should use our best judgment in recommending this strategy to students and parents.

h/t to Christine Martin for pointing out this study to me.

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