Topic page

Sleep: what the research says

Bedtime screens, teen phones at night, and what bed-sharing research actually followed. This page collects all 3 episodes on sleep — papers from 2024–2026, across longitudinal cohort study, within-person observational study, randomized clinical trial designs. Every episode states plainly what its study found, what it didn't prove, and one thing you can try tonight.

Phones & Screens (7)Discipline & Praise (2)Homework & Learning (2)Family Meals (3)

Episode 9⏱ 3:11 video · 📖 1 min read

Longitudinal cohort study Video coming soon

Bed-Sharing With Your Baby Left No Mark by Age 11

Bilgin et al., Attachment & Human Development, 2024

Try tonight: Make your sleep-arrangement decision on current safe-sleep guidance and your family's real life — and let go of the fear that bed-sharing at 9 months, by itself, sets your child's behaviour path.

Teens on Phones After 10pm Fall Asleep an Hour Later

Zhao, Hale & Christakis, JAMA Pediatrics, 2026

Try tonight: Set a 20-minute phone-free buffer before bed — phones down, ideally charging outside the bedroom, for the last 20 minutes of the night.

No Screens in the Last Hour Made Toddlers Sleep Better

Pickard et al., JAMA Pediatrics, 2024

Try tonight: Build a bedtime box — books, puzzles, soft toys — and swap the last hour before bed from screens to the box, every night for a week.

Questions about sleep

What is the strongest evidence on sleep here?

Episode 1 — a randomized clinical trial (Pickard et al., JAMA Pediatrics, 2024). Removing screens in the hour before bed improved toddlers' sleep in a randomized trial — better sleep efficiency and fewer night wakings, measured objectively.

What can I try tonight from the sleep research?

Each episode ends with one small, doable idea drawn from what its paper actually tested or observed: Episode 9: Make your sleep-arrangement decision on current safe-sleep guidance and your family's real life — and let go of the fear that bed-sharing at 9 months, by itself, sets your child's behaviour path. Episode 2: Set a 20-minute phone-free buffer before bed — phones down, ideally charging outside the bedroom, for the last 20 minutes of the night. Episode 1: Build a bedtime box — books, puzzles, soft toys — and swap the last hour before bed from screens to the box, every night for a week.

How many episodes cover sleep, and from which years?

This page collects 3 of the 12 launch episodes, covering papers published in 2024–2026 — longitudinal cohort study, within-person observational study, randomized clinical trial designs.

Prefer the full list? Browse all 12 episodes or open the paper index.