Talk by Prof. Sabine Seehagen
Sleep, Screens, and Science: A Contextual Approach to Early Development
April 27, 2026, 14:30 h
Andreasstrasse 15, 8050 Zurich, AND 4.55/57 (4th floor)
Developmental scientists have devised sophisticated methods to track how infants acquire specific skills, sometimes at the expense of taking a contextual perspective. This presentation will first outline a series of studies that examined infant sleep from a contextual perspective, with a focus on its interplay with media use and cognition. Using experimental designs, we investigated whether screen media use before bedtime impairs sleep through melatonin suppression and whether sleep following media use supports memory retention of screen-presented contents. In the second part of the presentation, I will introduce NAP – The Infant Sleep Hub, an ongoing project that adopts a transdisciplinary approach to infant sleep. This initiative aims to integrate scientific research with societal applications, thereby bridging the gap between science and society.