Board of Advisors Spotlight: Lauren Hale, PhD

Dr. Hale’s research explores how sleep varies across populations, with a focus on the social and contextual factors influencing sleep health. Her work has been instrumental in uncovering the ways digital media use affects sleep, particularly among children and adolescents. 

When Dr. Hale first began studying how technology affects youth sleep health, few researchers were investigating this critical issue. In 2013 she began a study of adolescents’ sleep health – and by 2015 – her systematic literature review in 2015, co-authored with Stanford Guan, a graduate student–identified just 67 articles on youth screen use and sleep. Even with the limited research, over 90% of studies in  the literature review showed a clear association between nighttime screen use and several detrimental outcomes, such as later sleep onset, shorter sleep duration, and reduced sleep quality.

At the time, the scarcity of research itself and the clear limitations (including over-reliance on cross-sectional, self-reported data of both screen use and sleep) in the existing studies opened the door for Dr. Hale to further explore the topic.

A decade later, the field has expanded dramatically. In 2024, Dr. Hale chaired a National Sleep Foundation consensus panel on screens and sleep, reviewing more than 500 articles on the topic. While the panel concluded that screens can impair sleep health, it also outlined evidence-based interventions to help stem these negative effects – namely, keeping phones out of the bedroom at least one hour before sleep.

While progress has been made in understanding the relationship between digital media and sleep, Dr. Hale emphasizes the need for continued research and culture shifts. She highlights several key areas for further research to better understand how digital media affect youth sleep health:

• • Examining how different types of digital content impact sleep timing, quality, and duration
  • Identifying specific timing (e.g., after 9 pm or during school hours) and locations (e.g., in the bedroom or in the classroom) of digital media use that puts teens at higher risk for displacing healthy behaviors, such as sleep and learning 
  • Investigating the potential reverse causality between sleep and screen use – do screens disrupt sleep or do sleep disturbances lead to more screen time? 

Separately, Dr. Hale sees a major opportunity to engage the social media industry in promoting better sleep habits among youth. This might include “reducing the temptation of smartphone use at night” for children and adolescents and shifting their approach “from sleep depleting” to being “sleep promoting.” If platform-wide changes are not feasible, she underscores the importance of changing cultural norms around nighttime phone use. In particular, she noted the opportunity for continued education and engagement with parents and families to help change the cultural norms of keeping and using devices in bedrooms, particularly for youth. She believes that such a collective consensus could reduce children and adolescents’ behaviors and attitudes, including the fear of missing out (FOMO) by not checking their devices late at night. 

“The best would be getting the social media companies to change what they’re offering – but if that’s not acceptable, then we need to change the culture and expectations around phone use at night.”

Reflecting on her 10+ years with Children and Screens’ National Scientific Advisory Board, Dr. Hale shares her growing enthusiasm for addressing digital media’s impacts on children’s health and well-being. She notes that, as a whole, “it’s a very challenging topic,” but has been encouraged by the Institute’s educational programs, resources and events. Discussing the #AskTheExperts webinar series and the recently published Handbook of Children and Screens, “I believe that [the Institute] is doing a huge service by providing all of this research in accessible formats.” Above all, she finds meaning and value in the Institute’s Congresses, which she describes as “scientifically engaging and social at the same time” and “something that wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have this Institute to create this assembly of scholars around the theme of children and screens.”

With the continued growth of research and advocacy in this space, Dr. Hale remains committed to advancing knowledge and shaping healthier sleep habits for future generations.