|
 The study investigated the association between media consumption -
including electronic media such as television, DVDs and computer
gaming as well as books - with overall sleep quality in 530
three-year-olds born in southern Germany in 2012 and 2013.
Based on parent responses to a questionnaire, higher electronic
media consumption was strongly linked to poor overall sleep quality,
including worsening bedtime resistance, sleep anxiety, and daytime
sleepiness.
“Previous studies have shown that media use, particularly electronic
media use in the evening, is associated with poor sleep in
adolescents and adults. This study shows that such relationships can
be observed much earlier in life - even in the first 3-4 years,”
said Dr. Daniel Buysse, a sleep medicine researcher at the
University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, who was not involved in
the study.
Reading is a safer bet at bedtime, noted Lauren Hale, Professor of
Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine at the Stony Brook
University School of Medicine in New York.
“Books at night may not be innately beneficial for sleep, but
compared to using screen-based media, they present an alternative
that is not disruptive to sleep health,” said Hale, who also wasn’t
involved in the new research.
Nearly 40 percent of parents reported never reading books to their
children. Dr. Yolanda Reid-Chassiakos, clinical assistant professor
of pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was
not involved in the study, called that “surprising and
disappointing.”
All but one family had electronic media devices at home, nine
3-year-olds owned a device such as a mobile phone or tablet
themselves and three children had a TV in their bedroom, researchers
wrote in the journal Sleep Medicine.
Nearly one in seven children watched more than one hour of TV per
day. “This exceeds the recommended ‘up to 30 minutes’ after the age
of 2 years,” said study coauthor Jon Genuneit of Ulm University in
an email.
Dr. Nitun Verma, spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep
Medicine, was surprised that increased electronic media consumption
wasn’t linked with less reading or being read to. “But this doesn't
mean there is no connection. It is likely because they (study
authors) didn't study enough people,” he said in an email.
[to top of second column] |
The researchers note that they lacked data on the content of media
consumed, and on the children’s physical activity. The study is
ongoing, however. Starting next year, the research team will collect
data on physical activity, Genuneit said.
The study wasn’t a controlled experiment, so it cannot prove a
causal link between higher electronic media consumption and lower
sleep quality.
It is also unclear whether children are consuming more electronic
media at bedtime because they have trouble sleeping, or the other
way around.
“On a near-daily basis I talk with parents who tell me their child
can’t fall asleep without the TV on, and yet, rather ironically,
they are seeing me because their child can’t fall asleep,” said Dr.
Jonathan Hintze, a pediatric sleep medicine specialist with the
Children’s Hospital of Greenville Health System in South Carolina,
who was not involved in the study.
Poor sleep quality can impair mood, performance and health, noted
Kristen Knutson, an associate professor of neurology (sleep
medicine) at Northwestern University. “We need to understand . . .
how to mitigate these effects because people are not going to stop
using (electronic devices),” said Knutson, who did not work on the
German study.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2mEf20I Sleep Medicine, online December 12,
2017.
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
