For most people, media use is the last activity they engage in before they go to bed. They watch TV, play video games, scroll social media posts, etc. Even those who do not use the media for leisure are often still using screens: for school, or work. Increasingly, screen use and sleep are competitors. More use of screen media often goes at the expense of more sleep. Now that media have become extremely portable, they even follow us into bed.

This course examines the interaction between (un)healthy media use and (un)healthy sleep. What can we learn about healthy sleep from looking at the media? What can we learn about our media use from studying sleep? Does media use affect sleep positively or negatively? Are there effects in the opposite direction? In other words, does sleep affect media use? This course will examine what research has shown about media and sleep, but we will also examine how this applies to our own (media and sleep) habits.

Students will get a better understanding of their own behaviors and their own needs and will learn what is needed to study the impact of media use on sleep successfully.