Limiting children's screen time linked to better cognition, study says

By Naomi Thomas, CNN

Updated 1629 GMT (0029 HKT) October 10, 2018

A <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/03/health/teens-cell-phone-addiction-parents/index.html">poll conducted for Common Sense Media</a>, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Photos: Understanding addiction to technology
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
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A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Photos: Understanding addiction to technology
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Hide Caption
2 of 7
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Photos: Understanding addiction to technology
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Hide Caption
3 of 7
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Photos: Understanding addiction to technology
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Hide Caption
4 of 7
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Photos: Understanding addiction to technology
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Hide Caption
5 of 7
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Photos: Understanding addiction to technology
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Hide Caption
6 of 7
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Photos: Understanding addiction to technology
A poll conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology, explores families and technology addiction.
Hide Caption
7 of 7
MobileDeviceAddiction_50TeensMobileDeviceAddiction_6978ParentsMobileDeviceAddiction_72TeensMobileDeviceAddiction_66ParentsMobileDeviceAddiction_36ParentsMobileDeviceAddiction_54Parent-02MobileDeviceAddiction_52Parent

Story highlights

  • The combination of sleep time, screen time and physical activity when considered together have the biggest impact on cognition
  • 30% of the children in the study met none of the recommendations for these three activities

(CNN)Limiting kids' recreational screen time to less than two hours a day, along with sufficient sleep and physical activity, is associated with improved cognition, according to a study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.

The study included about 4,500 US children ages 8 to 11 and measured their habits against the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth. It found that 51% of the children got the recommended nine to 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night, 37% met the recreational screen time limit of two hours or less per day, while 18% met the physical activity recommendation of at least 60 minutes of accumulated physical activity a day.
Only 5% of the children in the study met all three recommendations; 30% met none at all.
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    On average, the participants slept 9.1 hours per night, had 3.6 hours of recreational screen time per day and hit the physical activity goal 3.7 days per week.