Future of Families Sleep Health and Digital Media Sub-Study: Implications for physical, mental, and cognitive wellbeing - Project Summary Sleep health and digital media use are public health priorities. Leveraging the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) data collection, the proposed research will investigate contextual and modifiable predictors of young adult sleep health and digital media use, and how these behavioral patterns affect within- person daily and longer-term health outcomes. This age group is significant because it is the leading edge of the first cohort who grew up with digital media devices in their hands and bedrooms from middle school onward. The longer-term consequences of media use will first be observed in this cohort. This proposed sub- study of FFCWS will collect data on a subsample of young adults who participated in the age 15 actigraphy data collection. We will collect 14 days of state-of-the-art wearable technology that will record objective data on sleep, physical activity, and sympathetic nervous system activity, with a concurrent smartphone-based app collecting twice-daily ecological momentary assessments (EMA) of behaviors, wellbeing, substance use, cognitive performance, and passive sensing of smartphone use. Passive collection of smartphone use creates a novel opportunity to objectively examine potential roles of smartphone duration, timing, and content on sleep health. In Aim 1 (DATA COLLECTION), this proposed study adds novel high-quality granular data to an existing longitudinal birth cohort study. Furthermore, adding cognitive tasks from an NIH toolkit allows for comparison to other large datasets and cohorts using these measures. In Aim 2 (SLEEP HEALTH), we will use rigorous multilevel modeling of 14 days of micro-longitudinal data to identify the day-to-day within-person predictors and consequences of sleep health in young adulthood. For example, we will examine within-person daily temporal associations between select behaviors (e.g. physical activity and substance use) and that night’s sleep health and how nightly sleep contributes to the next day’s heart rate variability, mood, and cognition. In Aim 3 (DIGITAL MEDIA USE), we will use rigorous multilevel modeling of 14 days of micro-longitudinal data to identify within-person predictors and consequences of duration, content, and timing of objectively measured smartphone use. We hypothesize that on nights when participants have extended sessions or later digital media use, they will have delayed sleep, shorter sleep duration, and reduced sleep quality on that night compared to their usual sleep health outcomes, with stronger effects for more interactive content and later time of use. In Aim 4 (LONGITUDINAL ANALYSES), we assess how sleep health and digital media use patterns from adolescence through young adulthood are associated with wellbeing (e.g., physical health, mood, and cognitive performance). This proposed rigorous actigraphy-based investigation of sleep and digital media use will advance our understanding of health outcomes in young adulthood. Mechanistic insights regarding the role of contextual and modifiable behaviors (e.g., digital media use, physical activity, substance use) can influence the development, implementation, and evaluation of recommendations and interventions to improve wellbeing.
