[lathamcity]

The article just says "electronics with backlit displays". I'm surprised it singles out tablets, because unless I'm reading it wrong, that includes laptops, or even television sets. Strikes me as untrue, since almost everybody has these and stares at them all day and not everybody has sleeping problems.

[gwern]

Sleeping problems is a pretty extreme case. If the tablet or laptop pushes your sleep time back to midnight from 10 PM, that could be a large and significant effect even if one doesn't consider it 'a problem'.

(In some groups, this might be a problem, and the paper specifically mentions them: adolescents already have a sleep schedule that has been pushed back by puberty, love their gadgets, and have hard and early wake-up times. The result: highschoolers spend the first few classes half-asleep.)

[sneak]

I think a lot more people use tablets in bed than use(d) laptops in bed. I for one read a _lot_ more from a backlit display since the iPad.