Recruiting

Evening Light

Sponsor:

Baylor College of Medicine

Code:

NCT06192745

Conditions

Sleep

Circadian Rhythm

Executive Function

Emotion Regulation

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 8 - 11

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

no screen control with dim light and calming activities

unfiltered Bright tablet screen

Filtered dim tablet screen

Exciting content

Calming Content

Study Details

Brief summary:

The proposed project aims to disentangle the impact of evening light exposure emitted from tablet devices from the impact of arousing media content on children's sleep regulation, circadian physiology and next-day emotion regulation and executive functioning.

Conditions

Sleep

Circadian Rhythm

Executive Function

Emotion Regulation

Study ID

NCT06192745

Start date

Jan 10, 2025

Status verified date

Jun, 2026

Completion date

Aug 30, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Aug 30, 2028

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 8 - 11

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • children between 8.0 and 11.9 year old
  • Tanner stage 1 and 2
  • live with their parent(s) (biological or legal guardian at least 50% of the time and has a primary role of caring for the child).
  • Children who sleep between 8.5 to 11 hours per night habitually
  • Children must sleep alone most nights
  • parent and child able to communicate and read and write in English
  • The child does not have to have access to a mobile device (tablet or Phone), but if they do, the primary device they use has to be an a) Android OS ≥5.0 either used only by the study child or shared with others, b) Amazon Fire OS ≥5.0 that only the child uses or c) an Apple iOS ≥14.0 that only the child uses.
  • If the child's primary device is a Android or Amazon Fired device, the parent and child agree to install Chronicle App (Android or Amazon). If the child's primary device is an Apple device, the parent and child agree to allow us to gather usage screenshots from the primary iPad or iPhone.
  • Families must live in the greater Houston area.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • child blindness or colorblindness
  • significant vision problems
  • developmental or cognitive delays
  • diagnosis of a sleep or psychiatric disorder
  • diagnosed cognitive or learning impairment affecting executive functioning (e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)
  • medical conditions that impact sleep
  • taking medications that impact sleep
  • travel beyond 2 time zones in the month before starting the study

Study Design

Enrollment

220 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Prevention

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Group 1

Children will participate in 2 exposure conditions in their own homes (i.e., experimental and internal negative control), facilitated by research staff (one week apart, counterbalanced to control for possible order effects). The internal negative control will be the same for all groups, but the experimental exposure will differ. Both exposures will take place for 1 hour before bed in room lighting (40-50 lux).

Experimental exposure: children in Group 1 will be exposed to a tablet with unfiltered bright screen light and exciting media content (BL/EC).

Internal negative control exposure: children will participate in non-screen-based quiet activities

experimental: Group 2

Children will participate in 2 exposure conditions in their own homes (i.e., experimental and internal negative control), facilitated by research staff (one week apart, counterbalanced to control for possible order effects). The internal negative control will be the same for all groups, but the experimental exposure will differ. Both exposures will take place for 1 hour before bed in room lighting (40-50 lux).

Experimental exposure: children in Group 2 will be exposed to a tablet with unfiltered bright screen light and calming media content (BL/CC).

Internal negative control exposure: children will participate in non-screen-based quiet activities

experimental: Group 3

Children will participate in 2 exposure conditions in their own homes (i.e., experimental and internal negative control), facilitated by research staff (one week apart, counterbalanced to control for possible order effects). The internal negative control will be the same for all groups, but the experimental exposure will differ. Both exposures will take place for 1 hour before bed in room lighting (40-50 lux).

Experimental exposure: children in Group 3 will be exposed to a tablet with filtered dim screen light and exciting media content (DL/EC).

Internal negative control exposure: children will participate in non-screen-based quiet activities

experimental: Group 4

Children will participate in 2 exposure conditions in their own homes (i.e., experimental and internal negative control), facilitated by research staff (one week apart, counterbalanced to control for possible order effects). The internal negative control will be the same for all groups, but the experimental exposure will differ. Both exposures will take place for 1 hour before bed in room lighting (40-50 lux).

Experimental exposure: children in Group 4 will be exposed to a tablet with filtered dim screen light and calming media content (DL/CC).

Internal negative control exposure: children will participate in non-screen-based quiet activities

Interventions

no screen control with dim light and calming activities

Non-screen-based quiet activities for 1 hour before bed in room lighting 40-50 lux

unfiltered Bright tablet screen

Bright light screen media exposure will be delivered on an iPad Pro provided by the research team which will be set to the brightest light intensity setting for 1 hour before bed in room lighting 40-50 lux

Filtered dim tablet screen

Filtered dim light screen media exposure will be delivered for 1 hour before bed in room lighting 40-50 lux on an iPad Pro provided by the research team. A blue light filter will be used to alter the spectral distribution of the emitted light and the screen brightness will be dimmed to the lowest possible setting

Exciting content

We will create a 1-hour recording of movie clips containing exciting content from age-appropriate movies for 8- to 11-year-old children as rated by Common Sense Media.

Calming Content

We will create a 1-hour recording of movie clips containing calming content from age-appropriate movies for 8- to 11-year-old children as rated by Common Sense Media.

Primary outcome measure

  • Differences in Sleep Duration on nights following the experimental and internal negative control exposures [ Time Frame: Night 9 and 16 ]
  • Differences in Subjective Sleep Quality on nights following the experimental and internal negative [ Time Frame: Night 9 and 16 ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Insia Raza, MPH

713-798-0555insia.raza@bcm.edu

Hafza Dadabhoy

718-798-0557dadabhoy@bcm.edu

Locations

Children's Nutrition Research Center

Recruiting

Houston, Texas, United States, 77030

Contacts

Insia Raza, MPH

713-798-0555insia.raza@bcm.edu

Hafza Dadabhoy, MS RD LD

713-798-0557dadabhoy@bcm.edu

More Information

Sponsor

Baylor College of Medicine

Last update posted

Jun 3, 2026

Last verified

Jun, 2026

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Baylor College of Medicine on 2026-06-03.