Preschoolers' engagement with entertaining screen content: associations with sleep and cognitive development

The preschool years (ages 3–5) are a critical phase of development, with sleep an important factor in children's cognitive growth. This study examined the relationships between time spent engaged with entertaining screen content, sleep, and cognitive development in 58 preschoolers (aged 2 years, 10 months to 5 years, 5 months). Children’s average daily screen time was 40.3 minutes. There were no significant associations between screen time and the preschoolers’ sleep duration. Moreover, there was no significant relationship between screen time, sleep duration, and working memory. There was, however, a significant relationship between screen time and mental shifting performance when moderated by sleep duration. For preschoolers who slept over 10 hours, greater screen time was associated with poorer mental shifting performance. For children with less than 10 hours sleep, the relationship was non-significant. These results challenge the assumed relationship between screen time and cognitive development, emphasising the role of sleep as a moderating factor. Preschoolers' cognitive flexibility may be affected differently by screen time depending on their sleep duration. These findings highlight the complexity of the dynamics among screen media, sleep, and cognitive development in preschoolers and suggest a need for a multifaceted approach to understanding these relationships.