Emily Cherkin’s daughter started having almost daily headaches more than a year ago at age 12. Cherkin took her daughter to the pediatrician and eye doctor, but the problem persisted.
Frustrated and given no other solutions from doctors, Cherkin, an author and screen time consultant, told the school her daughter wouldn’t be using the laptop provided for homework anymore. The headaches stopped almost immediately.
“It was a night-and-day difference,” Cherkin says. “Even that shift from using it an hour or two a day to not at all was all it took to get rid of the headaches.”
Too much screen time may be bad for your eyes, can cause problems with sleeping, and lead to pain known as “tech neck.” But there is also a strong connection between too much screen time and your metabolism. For adults and children, even small amounts of extra time spent in front of screens can cause weight gain and worsen your health as you age.
How Screen Time Affects Childhood Metabolism
The issue with too much screen time and health starts in childhood.
Researchers in the Netherlands looked at 109 studies that studied screen time and its effect on the health of children up to age 16. They found that too much screen time was linked to overweight, obesity, and being “unfit.” TV viewing, in particular, was strongly linked to having too much weight and poor cardiorespiratory fitness (the heart’s and lung’s ability to provide oxygen to the body during exercise).
Another study in the Journal of the Endocrine Society looked at youth with a mean age of 14. Adolescents who spent more than six hours a day in front of a screen were more likely to have metabolic syndrome, a group of health conditions (including high cholesterol, high blood fat or triglycerides, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, or excess weight around the waist) that increases the risk of having a stroke, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
This study did find the increased risk for metabolic syndrome was only among adolescents who frequently snacked while watching TV or playing video games.
“If kids are distracted with a screen, they are more likely to eat aimlessly even if they feel full,” says Jason Nagata, MD, associate professor of pediatrics in the division of adolescent and young adult medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “When mindlessly eating, they tend to eat what tastes good, which usually has more sugar and salt. And when they see junk food advertised, they are more likely to eat that.”
Sleep, an important part of our metabolism, can also be harmed by too much screen time. When we have less sleep for just a few days, we process fats more slowly and we are less satisfied when we eat, according to a 2019 article in the Journal of Lipid Research.
One study from the Journal of Clinical Medicine found that 90% of Americans reported using some kind of technology in the hour before bed. About 70% of people under the age of 30 used their cell phones. Researchers also found that, unlike “passive” technology such as TV or music players, technology that was more interactive — such as cell phones — made it more difficult for study participants to fall asleep, and they reported their sleep was less restful.
Can Screen Time Affect Adults, Too?
Researchers from the University of Arizona studied 60 healthy college students living in dorms in their freshman year on campus. They split the students into two groups: those who got more than 75 minutes of screen time a day outside of schoolwork and those who got less.
The researchers took stool samples from the students to understand their gut microbiome and how screen time affected it. They found higher levels of many healthy bacteria associated with less risk of weight gain and improved metabolism in the students with less reported screen time.
Students who had higher screen time had more molecules in the gut that are related to stomach disorders such as celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disorder, as well as ones related to obesity and chronic fatigue syndrome.
“In the bigger picture, this study points to a possible chain reaction,” says Alex Mohr, a researcher and study co-author. “The more time you spend in front of screens, you begin to have changes and disruption in the gut, and there are effects on your mood, metabolism, and health.”
Only about 24% of U.S. adults get the recommended amount of weekly physical activity, according to the CDC. And too much screen time can make it harder to exercise.
Bob Hancox, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, says that doing almost anything else may be more productive than sedentary screen time. When watching TV, you are basically at your basal metabolic rate — using only the energy your body needs to perform basic functions such as breathing and regulating body temperature. Sitting still using a low amount of energy could affect your metabolism over time, he says.
“Even reading a book is probably more active than watching TV because you have to turn the pages,” he says. “If you sit and watch a screen, you probably aren’t even fidgeting.”
Screen Time and Risk of Metabolic Syndrome
Having a lot of screen time may increase your risk of metabolic syndrome — and how much you get as a child may dramatically affect your health as an adult.
In Nagata’s 2023 study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, he followed more than 7,000 adolescents over 24 years. At the follow-up, he found that 43% of study participants had obesity and that each extra hour of screen time increased the risk of having a higher body mass index (BMI), obesity, larger waist circumference, and diabetes.
Hancox studied 870 people in New Zealand from ages 5 to 45 to see if there was a connection between the participants’ screen time and metabolic disorder. Study participants who watched more TV from ages 5 to 15 had a higher risk of having metabolic syndrome, higher BMI, and less cardiorespiratory fitness at age 45.
“The effects from childhood appear to be very long lasting,” Hancox says. “We might be programming the body and metabolism at an early age, and somehow that persists into adulthood.”
How to Cut Your Screen Time and Improve Your Health
Cherkin says being tech-intentional for a family means later is better, less is more, and relationships and skills come before screens.
“The longer you can delay any technology exposure to your children, the better,” Cherkin says. “That doesn't mean your toddler never watches a show, but I have never had a parent say to me, ‘I wish I gave my kid access earlier.’”
For younger children, Cherkin recommends bigger screens (TV over a phone) and slower-paced, long-form TV shows that are ad-free (to help keep a child focused). Instead of using headphones, keep the volume open so you can hear what your child is watching. And when possible, watch with them or have them watch with a sibling.
For young elementary school-aged children, she suggests seeking out alternative media such as music or audiobooks, which allow for coloring or other movement while listening. You may also encourage so-called “exergaming”: using programs that require physical movement to play.
Adults can model good technology behavior for children. You can use screen time to exercise when possible.
Because of the importance of sleep in metabolic health, most organizations recommend turning off all devices about an hour before bedtime. Cherkin says that everyone should leave their phones out of the bedroom.
Cherkin keeps tabs on her phone usage by narrating what she is doing on her phone to her daughter: “I’m going to see when band practice starts, and then check traffic. Now I’m texting Dad to see when he’s going to be home. Now I’m looking up a recipe for dinner.”
Giving a play-by-play keeps you accountable for how you use technology and models good habits for your kids.
“How we use technology as adults is how our kids will use it,” Cherkin says. “And limiting it isn’t easy; it is the hardest thing I’ve ever done as a parent.”
Takeaways
- Screen time has a major impact on your metabolism and may be related to an increased risk of metabolic syndrome.
- Studies have shown that every extra hour you spend in front of a screen can increase your chances of being overweight, having excess weight around your stomach, and having poorer heart function.
- The amount of screen time you get as a child can affect your metabolism as an adult.
FAQs About Screen Time and Metabolism
How much screen time should children have? The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry recommends children from 18 months to 2 years watch only educational programming with an adult. Children from 2 to 5 should have no more than one hour a day during the week of noneducational screen time and three hours a day on the weekend.
What is metabolic syndrome? Health conditions that increase your risk of having a stroke, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. It means having three or more of the following conditions: high cholesterol, high blood fat (triglycerides), high blood sugar, high blood pressure, or excess weight around your waist.
How does excess screen time increase the risk of metabolic disorder? It can increase your risk by mindlessly eating while watching screens and by reducing the time you spend sleeping and exercising.
