That’s why smartphones should be out of the children’s room in the evening
In children, there is a connection between the use of electronic media and shorter sleep times
What: pa / obs EUROPA
Many children and young people use smartphones, tablets and similar devices – even late at night. Danish researchers report how this affects sleep. There is clear advice for parents. A certain light is problematic.
KIndians sleep less and worse when they use smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices in the evening. This is what Danish researchers report after an overview study in the specialist journal “BMC Public Health”. For a German expert, the results underline that such media should be banned from children’s rooms at night.
Good and adequate sleep is central to well-being and health – this is all the more true for children and adolescents, as many development processes take place during sleep. Your need for sleep decreases with age, but external factors can lead to less or poorer sleep. These influences can include the increasing use of smartphones, tablets and other electronic screen media, as studies have already suggested.
Too much smartphone use affects children
In the past few months, many parents have been more generous when it comes to their children’s media use due to the lack of alternatives. But if children and young people spend hours with their smartphones, development suffers.
A team from the University of Southern Denmark systematically evaluated studies on the relationship between media consumption and sleep. The researchers examined 49 studies from 2009 to 2019, in each of which between 55 and almost 370,000 children aged up to 15 took part. They found that the use of electronic media was associated with shorter sleep times, and this relationship was more pronounced in children aged 6 to 15 than in younger people.
For children up to the age of five, shorter sleep was mainly associated with the use of television and tablets, while for older children, on the other hand, with a wide range of different electronic media such as video games, computers and smartphones. In this age group, the researchers found a connection between the use of electronic media and late bed rest and poorer sleep quality.
In adolescents aged 13 to 15, screen use has been linked to difficulty falling asleep and social media use has been linked to poor sleep quality.
The authors suspect that the interactive media predominantly used by young people may have a stimulating effect. For all age groups, the blue light that is emitted by screens can suppress the production of the sleep hormone melatonin. The consequences are a shorter sleep duration and a disruption of the natural sleep-wake cycle.
For Tanja Poulain from the Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, the study summarizes the findings on the topic: It confirms the connection between the presence of media devices in the children’s room on the one hand and sleep disorders on the other.
The psychologist emphasizes the importance of the smartphone: “Some of the studies listed also explicitly show connections between smartphone use at night and poor sleep quality. This underlines once again that precisely these devices, which can be stored anywhere and are not switched off at night, can impair sleep. “
In the “LIFE Child Study”, Poulain and colleagues themselves looked at the relationship between media consumption and sleep in children – this work was also incorporated into the current analysis. In contrast to many other studies, the Leipzig study is a longitudinal study that examines the effects of media consumption at different points in time.
The blue light from screens can suppress the production of the sleep hormone melatonin
Quelle: picture alliance / JOKER
Among other things, she found that the use of screen media can work like a vicious circle: “In our study, we were able to show that daytime sleepiness at the first survey time predicts television consumption a year later, for example.” Children who used more media slept worse. At the same time, children who slept worse and are correspondingly tired during the day tend to use more media, according to the psychologist: “Perhaps these children are too tired for other activities such as sports.”
It is all the more important that parents are aware of the risks posed by electronic media: “Clear rules should be drawn up right from the start as to when the use of such media is permitted.” Under no circumstances should smartphones, tablets and other devices be left in the children’s room overnight .
It doesn’t always have to be digital for the little ones
Do children prefer to spend their time with smartphones or computers? Nothing. The 2017 children’s media study shows that reading is still one of the favorite activities of the little ones.
In addition, Poulain recommends not using these media, like game consoles or computers, right before going to bed, but rather in the afternoon: “Small children in particular should be better read, while older children can be encouraged to read something themselves or to listen to music . “In principle, the role model function of the parents is important:” I know of families where the WiFi is generally switched off in the evening, and that affects everyone. “
The Danish authors emphasize that the studies come from North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other Western countries: It may therefore not be possible to transfer the results to other countries with different attitudes towards the use of electronic media. In addition, they are mostly observational studies that do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about cause and effect.
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