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In today’s episode of How Long ’Til Bedtime?, Allison dives into one of the trickiest screen-time boundaries parents face: screens in the bedroom.

Allison has always held a strong stance—no TVs, tablets, or phones in children’s bedrooms—and she’s breaking down exactly why this boundary matters, why it’s hard, and how to make it stick, even as kids get older.

Inside the episode, you’ll hear:
— Why screens in the bedroom can disrupt melatonin, sleep onset, and overall sleep quality
— How the “one more video” cycle impacts bedtime behavior and makes transitions harder
— The mental health risks associated with private, unsupervised screen use
— Why keeping screens in shared spaces protects kids emotionally and socially
— The simple logistical systems Allison uses in her own home (parental controls, charging stations, and more)
— What to do if you’re starting this boundary late — including the exact script Allison uses when changing screen rules
— Encouragement for holding firm, even when kids push back

Whether you’re parenting toddlers, big kids, or middle schoolers, this episode offers practical steps, compassionate support, and a strong reminder that: Screens aren’t going anywhere, but bedrooms can—and should—remain a place for rest, calm, and connection.

Wondering if your child is getting enough sleep? Allison’s free guides take the guesswork out of bedtime. Learn the optimal sleep ranges for every age so your little one can feel their best—day after day. Get your free copy now: 0-2 Years Old or 3 to 10 years old

From baby sleep to toddler sleep, daycare naps to sleep training—How Long ’Til Bedtime? is the podcast for parents who want practical, guilt-free sleep tips they can actually use.

Hosted by pediatric sleep coach Allison Egidi, each episode delivers real solutions for every stage—from navigating newborn sleep struggles and weaning night feedings to helping your 3-year-old fall asleep independently (and stay asleep!). Whether you’re trying to make sense of daycare sleep patterns, craving your evenings back, or simply need a working mom podcast to keep you grounded, you’re in the right place.

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Scroll down for a full transcript of this episode.

218. Why Screens Don’t Belong in Your Child’s Bedroom (And How to Set the Boundary)

Before we dive in, I want to talk about a somewhat completely random topic and that is getting work done on our faces. Cosmetic work. Recently, Instagram has been showing me updates from an online influencer who apparently had major plastic surgery on her face and she’s openly talking about what she had done and how the recovery is going and she’s talking about why it was important to her and why she’s being open about it. I actually don’t remember all the details, but the gist was she is calling it, I think her like age affirming surgery. So like making herself look like the age that she feels and she’s super stoked about it has no shame about what she’s doing.

And that’s why she’s sharing openly about it to kind of, I think, encourage people to be confident in their decisions about their looks and how they want to approach it. And I give her major props for confidently owning it. And it’s made me just think about the fact that I think we should all confidently own how we want to age. I think it’s safe to say that the very vast majority of my friends have at a minimum at least gotten Botox and most of them are super glad that they did and they continue to do it or do other things and they feel good about it. I, on the other hand, have no interest in doing anything to my face. For whatever reason, my wrinkles just don’t bother me.

So my current plan, and we all know I always reserve the right to change my mind, is to continue to prioritize good skincare and to embrace my natural aging. And as these videos kept popping up about this woman and her plastic surgery, I just found myself thinking good for her. We should all stand in confidence with the decisions that we make around how we want to handle our aging. So good for her and also good for me for doing what I want to do or not doing anything I should say. So here’s to each of us aging the way that makes us happiest and to not feeling any shame or embarrassment about it.

Okay, on to today’s episode, screens. my goodness do I have a love hate relationship with screens when it comes to parenting? And I have from the moment I let my kids look at their first screen when they were toddlers. And today I’m talking about one of the biggest pain points. Where in the house are kids allowed to use screens? More specifically, I want to talk about screens in the bedroom, why it’s hard to keep them out and how they genuinely can impact sleep.

Hey there, Allison here. Welcome back to How Long ‘Til Bedtime. Today we’re talking about something that I think many parents wrestle with, screens in the bedroom. And more specifically, why I fall into the camp of believing that young children should never have a TV, tablet, or phone in their bedroom. I know saying a child should never have a screen in their bedroom is a really strong stance.

You could even call it an unpopular or too firm of a stance. And I also know it’s not easy to live by a rule like that. Screens are everywhere at this point. For most kids and adults, they are part of our everyday life. They’re in our homes. They’re in the schools. They don’t, most schools don’t even have chalkboards anymore. They’re using these smart boards and they’re often in our cars, either installed in our cars or we’re giving our kids screens to make driving them around less painful. We use them to keep our kids occupied so we can make dinner or just enjoy a few minutes of quiet or to allow our kids to quote, wind down. And as kids get older, they’re used for homework. My daughter had to get a computer going into middle school and that’s where all of her homework lives. And of course, sadly, I am hearing so often about elementary age children who have phones and have social media. I mean, it’s just creeping into every aspect of our life at a younger and younger age.

Screens are such a huge part for many of us in our lives. And because they’re showing up earlier and earlier, we need to continue to be intentional about our boundaries around screens. According to a 2025 Common Sense Media Report, by age two, nearly 40 % of children already have their own tablet style screen. That statistic stunned me. Screens are becoming very deeply embedded into our kids’ lives, which makes establishing healthy limits harder for parents and more important.

I am seeing this consistently with families I work with and I am seeing how these screens can impact children’s sleep. And that brings me to one of the screen boundaries that I think is incredibly worth everyone considering. And that is no screens in the bedroom. Keeping screens out of the bedroom, with one exception that I’ll share in a minute, is one of the most protective decisions that you can make for your child’s sleep, for their mental health, and for their overall wellbeing. So let’s dig into it a little bit deeper. I’ve always been very clear about this, that I do not think young children should have any type of screen in their bedroom. No TV, no iPad, no phone.
The one exception in our home is when my kids are sick. If they are home and in bed with a fever or they’re just super sick, I will sometimes let them watch a show on the iPad while they rest in their bed. Kind of helps keep them quarantined a bit. And usually that’s the best place for them to be resting. But otherwise bedrooms are screen free spaces in our house. So let’s talk a little bit about the science of why this could be important and something to consider. Screens, especially phones and tablets emit blue light that suppresses melatonin, the hormone that’s telling your child’s brain it’s time to sleep. And when melatonin is suppressed, kids can have a harder time falling asleep. They can have more trouble staying asleep because of affected how much melatonin their body produced, which might lead to middle of the night wakings, and they can have less restorative sleep overall. And when screens are in the bedroom, that melatonin disruption is often happening right up to or just before we’re doing lights out. Even if screens are playing a small role in your child’s routine and it does not seem to be impacting their sleep. So let’s say it’s a three minute video as a reward for brushing their teeth or a five minute clip when they agree to get in bed. There is still a transition away from the screen that has to happen related to getting ready to go to bed.

And transitioning away from screens is one of the hardest transitions that many children will face. The reality is it’s one of the hardest transitions that I think even adults face. That’s why so many of us, and I’ve talked about those in previous episodes with my own kind of fall reset and things I’ve had to work on, so many of us get stuck scrolling in our beds. It’s hard to transition off of screens and our kids do not have fully developed brains, which is why they resist the transition even more. So if your child is using a screen at any point in their bedtime routine, you likely know what I’m talking about. There may be more resistance than negotiating. Let me just watch one more video or one more minute or extra, extra, extra. And it can even lead to resistance for the rest of the routine because they got agitated by this one transition point. Having screens accessible in the bedroom easily creates an unnecessary tug of war that can stretch bedtime out and or set your kids up to have a harder time falling asleep, meaning it would take longer. And even if you don’t yet see screens negatively impacting your child’s bedtime routine or their sleep, I would argue that it’s important to look ahead at the role screens play as kids move into upper elementary, middle school, and beyond.

Screens are increasingly linked with mental health challenges. Phones, tablets, and computers can easily expose kids to inappropriate content or people, social comparison, cyber bullying, or just group chats with their friends that just keep them abuzz and energized. All of this increases rates of anxiety and depression, especially in kids that are moving into that kind of middle school, high school group. And when a device is in the bedroom, rather than a shared family area, it is exponentially easier for kids to access content that you wouldn’t want them to be exposed to. Simply keeping screens in shared spaces dramatically reduces those risks. And if your house rule is no screens in the bedroom from the time your child is a toddler, it is so much easier to keep that boundary in place when they reach middle school. And I say this as a mom of a middle schooler. Our house rule, as I said, is no screens in the bedroom without parent approval, with the only exception usually being if someone is sick. Homework is done in the kitchen or the family room. And we have a pretty open floor plan.

So, get the pushback that they feel like it’s not private and that’s kind of the point. All devices my kids use have parental controls including my daughter’s school computer that make them inaccessible outside of daytime hours and my girls have Apple watches and those have the parental controls too but those get charged at night in our bedroom. Do I get complaints from my middle schooler about not being allowed to take her computer in her room to do her homework. Oh yes, you better believe I absolutely do. But have I also seen that kids in her grade and peer group who have screens in their rooms are involved in significantly more drama? 100%. And even she has begrudgingly admitted that.

So if you have a child who is already old enough to really push back or old enough to be sneaky, here are a few things that can help you out. From the time my girls got their first iPads, which was during COVID, they automatically shut off the access to anything an hour before bedtime. And it’s not easy even for me to figure out how to override my parental controls. So that makes it really easy for me to hold this boundary. In fact, recently there was a reason I wanted to get into one of my children’s iPads to look at something, but it was after the designated nighttime turnoff and I couldn’t even figure out my own parental controls because I’ve really locked it up so well. And so when they’re telling me they want me to change it, I’m like, at this point I barely even know how it’d take me forever. So it is a boundary.

That means I don’t have to say it’s time to turn these off because they’re turning off because that’s where I set them to turn off. And if you have a child who would try to sneak a device without parental limits, let’s say your iPad, because you guys, I work with a lot of parents, so I hear all the things that these kids can get up to, keep those items charging in your bathroom or your bedroom instead of a shared area in a family room. Don’t make it too easy for your kids to access these devices or have passwords on them that your children do not know. These small logistical setups matter and they help relieve some of the mental load around screen boundaries as children get older. So ideally, if we start early with our young kids and we don’t incorporate screens in their bedtime routines or allow screens in the bedroom, you’re just sticking to a rule that you created going forward, even though you’ll still meet pushback because that was always been our rule and I’m still getting pushback.

And I just want to acknowledge that having firm, consistent boundaries around screens is hard. It is hard. There are definitely times when the complaining wears on me and I joke with my kids that I am tempted to throw in the towel. But I know without a doubt that keeping screens out of the bedroom has played a major role in protecting my girls’ sleep and their mental health and then their academic performance. When it comes to limits around screens, I have to remind myself that sometimes parenting is hard. And I can do hard things, especially when it protects my children’s health and wellbeing.

Screens are not going anywhere. They are part of our lives and part of childhood at this point, but bedrooms should and can remain a place for sleep, rest, and calm. And keeping screens out of the bedroom is one of the simplest, most effective ways to protect your child’s sleep and wellbeing. And I also just want to share a little encouragement for those who have children who already have experienced being able to have screens in their bedroom. Because as I said, it’s easier to keep that rule if you had it in place from a young age. But I want to also remind you, encourage you that you can absolutely shift to a new rule at any time.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know my favorite mantra is I reserve the right to change my mind. And my kids know this. If I learn something new that makes me realize I no longer want them doing something that I previously allowed, I tell them exactly that. So I say, I learned something new. And now that I know XYZ, whatever it is I learned., we’re no longer going to do ABC, whatever it is that I want to change. So you can say that I learned that having screens in the bedroom is a really bad idea because XYZ. And so starting today, we’re no longer going to have screens in the bedroom because now I know something new and isn’t interesting, parents don’t know everything. And as we learn new things, we may have to change the rules.

I’m always telling my kids that not only do I not know everything about screens and technology, but also that I didn’t live with any of these things. I can’t even reflect on, I think my parents did that well, or I want to do things differently than my parents in this category, because this category didn’t exist when I was a child. So I am very open with my daughters about the fact that I am learning about these screens and how children should be using them real time. And that sometimes the rules have to change with screen use.
And in most cases, when I take that approach, whether it’s related to screens or something else, that I learned something new, and now that I know this, we’re not going to do this anymore. I get pushback for a few days, like intense pushback for a few days. I think they want to see if they can wear me down. Get me to throw that towel in. But then it shifts to normal age-appropriate pushback.

So as we continue doing the hard things that protect our children’s well-being, know that I am cheering you on. We’ve got this even on those days where we want to throw in the towel. As always, thanks for listening and I will see you all back here next week. Bye for now.