--- title: iPads Act as Sedatives for Kids Before Surgery description: A new study reports that iPads helped lessen a child's anxiety before surgery as much as sedatives. canonical: https://time.com/4472306/its-official-ipads-are-sedatives-for-kids/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-30T14:29:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:44:51.996Z article:section: Health og:title: It's Official: iPads Are Sedatives for Kids og:description: No parents will be surprised by this one. og:url: https://time.com/4472306/its-official-ipads-are-sedatives-for-kids/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafc125eb1f452a81/6988a429a988ca3dc76b93e1/ipad.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5079 og:image:height: 2857 og:image:alt: Tablet pc, empty blank screen on office table desk with og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: It's Official: iPads Are Sedatives for Kids twitter:description: No parents will be surprised by this one. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafc125eb1f452a81/6988a429a988ca3dc76b93e1/ipad.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # It's Official: iPads Are Sedatives for Kids > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=38ef041d-f1ea-4a14-ae1c-b01384c5580d&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Apple iPad Pro [Watch (HLS stream): Apple iPad Pro](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/UujMLTlv.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2016-03-21. Apple Announces New iPad Pro_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Aug 30, 2016 2:29 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Aug 30, 2016 2:29 PM UTC As many parents know, the secret to getting a child to relax can sometimes mean simply handing them an iPad. Apparently, that move has a scientific basis, too. According to a small new study, giving children who were about to undergo surgery an iPad was as effective at calming them down as giving them a sedative. In the report, which was presented at the [World Congress of Anaesthesiologists](http://wca2016.com/) in Hong Kong, researchers compared the effect of using an iPad to taking a sedative called midazolam on children’s anxiety before anesthesia and surgery. The kids, who were between the ages of 4 and 10, were randomly assigned to either take the sedative or play with an iPad—they could play games like Angry Birds and Monster Dash—20 minutes before they were given anesthesia [**_Quiz: Are You Ready for Back to School?_**](http://time.com/4457305/back-to-school-quiz/) The researchers measured the children’s anxiety at several different points throughout the day of surgery, including arrival at the hospital and when they were separated from their parents. The researchers also measured the parents’ satisfaction with the child’s procedure. They found that parent and child’s anxiety levels were similar between both groups, and parents were more satisfied with the experience when their child was given an iPad. The study authors suggest that using electronic tablets could be a way to reduce stress before surgeries without medication. The study size was very small with only 112 kids, but it’s not the first to suggest that distraction through technology could play a role in improved medical experiences. As [TIME recently reported](http://time.com/4465747/can-virtual-reality-help-people-manage-pain/), some hospitals and pain clinics are embracing virtual reality as a way to lower pain by distracting people with animations and virtual worlds. Though the method is still being explored, researchers suggest that people can only focus on a couple things at a time, and that distracting them can take their mind away from the anxiety-inducing procedure at hand. ## Transcript Today we're so excited to introduce you to, for the first time the second member of iPad Pro family. An entirely new iPad Pro based around a 9. 7 ince retina display. And it weighs less then one pound. Let me tell you a lot more about this brand new iPad Pro. It is 40 % less reflective than an iPad Air 2. And it's brighter too. 25 % brighter than an iPad Air 2. In addition, it supports two really breakthrough features. The first you've heard about from Jaws. It works with Night Shift. So as the sun goes down, the brightness dims a bit, the blue light wavelengths get reduced And some people find that makes it easier to get to sleep. But the second feature is a breakthrough that's never appeared on any device before. It's incredibly innovative. We call it a true tone display. A true tone display measures the color temperature of ambient light. And adjust the display to match, I heard an out there, somebody already gets this. [ LAUGHTER ] This is great. It has two new four- channel ambient light sensors that measure both brightness and color temperature. So how does that work? Let's start with a piece of paper. A piece of paper reflects light So when you use it in different environments it reflects the color temperature of the light in that environment. Our optic nerves are designed to be comfortable with this experience. You go into the warm incandescent light of your home and the paper takes on a warm tone. But now you use a digital device, digital devices emit light and that light has the same color temperature no matter where it is So the color cast isn't right, it doesn't match paper white. Well except now if it is a true tone display, it does. No matter where you use it, it automatically senses the color temperature of the light, and becomes warmer or cooler and matches paper white and is really natural to use. And the iPad Pro supports a great line of pro accessories. There's a smart keyboard designed specifically for the size at that 9. 7 inch retina display. And it supports the greatest accessory Apple has ever made. The pencil. It is an amazingly precise drawing tool. It senses pressure, as well as the tilt angle for amazing drawing. And you can draw it just like you do on paper by putting your hands on the iPad. because it's built- in palm rejection software. And it recognizes the pencil as well as your fingertips, so you can use both simultaneously to advance techniques for your drawings, for your illustrations. People love Drawing and doing illustrations on it. They also like taking notes on it. It's an incredible device. And in the new iPad Pro, we've put our most advanced camera yet. It's a 12 megapixel iSight camera with its Focus Pixels, True Tone Flash, and you can shoot 4K video with it. So right on your iPad Pro, you shoot 4K video. 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