Screen time link to insomnia in young children

Illustration: Ron Tandberg.

Time spent watching television and using computers is affecting the sleep of children as young as two, research shows.
A survey of parents of 101 Melbourne children aged two to five years found 54 per cent of children had sleep problems, which included having difficulty falling asleep and waking during the night or early morning.

Researcher Amanda Richdale, of La Trobe University's school of psychology, analysed various factors to measure their impact on children's sleep patterns, including ''screen time'' on a TV or computer. She found children who spent the most time on a TV or computer were the worst sleepers, showing electronic devices were having an impact even at a very young age.

Associate Professor Richdale said 95 per cent of children in the study watched TV for an average of an hour a day, and 64 per cent of children used electronic devices including computers and tablets for an average 19 minutes a day. But she said some children were watching TV and using electronic devices for up to three hours a day, putting them at risk of sleep problems.

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She said screen time was known to be impacting on the sleep patterns of older children and adolescents, but ''I was surprised we could already see an effect in children not at school yet''.
The study also found that children whose primary caregiver worked full or part-time tended to have better sleep patterns, which Professor Richdale said could be linked to a greater reliance on set routines. ''A mother or father who goes to work probably has to keep better routines to get through everything, and that helps promote sleep in children,'' she said.

The study found children who were too hot or too cold were more likely to have poor sleep, which was linked to parents using heaters to warm children's bedrooms in winter.
Professor Richdale, who presented the findings at the Australasian Sleep Association conference in Brisbane on Friday, said sleep problems were common for two to five-year-olds, who usually outgrew them.
''Parents should make sure children are sleeping at a comfortable temperature and that they don't have things like TVs, computers and iPads in their bedrooms or spend too much time watching them,'' she said.
Professor Richdale recommended 11 to 12 hours' sleep for children aged 2-5.
Reference:   http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/screen-time-link-to-insomnia-in-young-children-20131018-2vsip.html