Sleep research Electronic media use harms children's sleep

Electronic media use interferes with the sleep of children

The use of electronic media is critically evaluated in children for a variety of reasons. These include, according to a recent study also possible impairments of sleep quality. Based on the data from the SPATZ Health Study, scientists have shown that young children sleep much worse when they spend a lot of time watching TV or other electronic media.

It is not uncommon for parents to have small children on their smartphone or tablet watching children's series and the Sandman on TV is a must-have for many little ones before going to bed. But this can actually have a negative effect on the quality of sleep. The more three-year-olds watch television, use the computer or other digital media, the lower their sleep quality, scientists from the University of Ulm report on their current study results. The study was published in the journal "Sleep Medicine".

The intensive use of electronic media results in significant impairment of sleep quality in young children. (Image: HERRNDORFF / fotolia.com)

Increasing media consumption among the children

Even among the three-year-olds, there is an increasing use of electronic media and, at the same time, scientific studies describe negative effects of this consumption on the sleep duration of children, explains the research team headed by Professor Dietrich Rothenbacher from the University of Ulm. Based on the SPATZ Health Study, Ulm epidemiologists, together with researchers from Bielefeld and Santiago de Chile, have for the first time researched the effects of electronic media and books on the quality of sleep in a homogeneous age group.

Overall, moderate media consumption

The SPATZ Health Study in Ulm regularly surveys the health and living conditions of over 1,000 children from the birth cohorts of 2012 and 2013. In addition, the participating parents completed questionnaires on the media consumption and sleep behavior (Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire ") of their offspring for the current study, according to the announcement of the University of Ulm. The analysis of the data showed that the 530 examined three-year-olds, for whom all the required data was available, for the most part (58 percent), consumed videos and films on electronic devices for less than one hour. The media consumption seems to be rather moderate.

Every seventh child uses daily electronic media for more than an hour

But on closer inspection, the scientists said that one in seven children spend more than an hour a day in front of a screen, which significantly exceeds the recommended limit of 30 minutes at that age. The consequences for the children's sleep are extremely worrying. "We document alarming correlations between the use of electronic media and the sleep quality of children aged three," Jon Genuneit and Prof. Rothenbacher from the Ulm Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry. Increased television consumption is accompanied by a statistically significant worsening of, for example, sleep-related anxiety and daytime sleepiness.

In their study, the researchers were able to clearly demonstrate that the consumption of electronic media and low sleep quality in infants are related. Whether it plays a role here, that possibly already badly sleeping children are increasingly supplied to this media use remains to clarify according to the scientists in the further course of the birth cohort study.

Books have a positive effect on sleep

Researchers have also studied how working with books - read or viewed - affects children's sleep quality. There is no negative effect on the children's sleep, and the use of books seems to protect the children from nocturnal awakenings, according to Professor Rothenbacher and colleagues. However, according to the information provided by the parents, 39 percent of three-year-olds do not bother with books, according to the Ulm University.

Preventive measures must start early

"The more the children watch TV or use the computer, the lower is their quality of sleep" and "on the other hand, reading or watching books seems to improve children's sleep," the researchers emphasize. In order to anticipate a chronification of sleep problems, preventive measures regarding the use of media appear to be urgently necessary already in early childhood, the scientists conclude. (Fp)