Paediatricians and school leaders across the UAE are reporting a noticeable rise in health and behavioural problems among children tied to excessive screen use. New findings shared by specialists in Dubai show that a large share of children who spend four or more hours a day on screens suffer from sleep disruption, compared with a much smaller share among children who use screens for under an hour daily.
Dr Sudha Rao, a paediatrics specialist at Aster Clinic, said she has seen a substantial increase in young patients presenting with disorganised sleep cycles and eye-health complaints linked to prolonged screen exposure. She also pointed to a rise in what she described as "digital tantrums" — behavioural flare-ups when children are denied access to devices.
The same data indicates that children whose daily recreational screen time stays under two hours score markedly higher on attention and memory tasks than heavier users, reinforcing growing concern among UAE health professionals about the cognitive cost of unchecked device use.
School administrators are adjusting their guidance in response. Helen Pereira-Raso, head of a Dubai American school, cautioned against treating all screen time equally, noting that passive content consumption differs sharply from purposeful digital engagement that supports learning.
Educators at other Dubai schools echoed the concern, warning that heavy, unstructured screen use can displace essential developmental activities such as physical play and face-to-face social interaction.
Health professionals are urging UAE families to keep devices out of children's bedrooms overnight, enforce screen-free mealtimes, and have parents model healthy digital habits themselves — such as putting phones away during family conversations — to curb the trend before it worsens further.