Screen Time and Sleep Condition among Selected College Students

College students underestimate the value of adequate sleep. The purpose of this research was to measure the relationship between students' sleep condition and screen time usage one hour prior to bed. The participants in this study were undergraduate students, from ages 18 to 25 years of age, enrolled in spring semester 2017 at a Midwestern University. A 15-item paper survey was distributed to participants for this research (55.7% female; 42.8% male).;This research found that sampled undergraduate students' amount of sleep each night ranged from 4 to 10 hours and averaged 6.9 hours of adequate sleep each night. This finding is consistent with previous literature that showed nearly 70% of college students receive five to seven hours of sleep each night (Gutierrez, 2002). Further, 92.9% of sampled students always or very often used electronic devices before bedtime. When measuring participants' relationship between their overall sleep condition and screen time usage, no significant difference was found [r (321) =-.010, p =.857]. There also was no significant difference found when screen time usage before bedtime and hours of sleep received each night was compared [r(322) =.002, p =.966].