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Bangalore: The use of electronic media and devices is delaying sleep time and worsening sleep quality in children, especially between the ages of six and 15, a recent review showed.
The team of researchers from the University of Southern Denmark found that in children under the age of five, media use and less sleep were associated with television and tablet use, while children aged 6-15 had trouble sleeping due to frequent use. There was Various types of electronic media – cellphones, computers, being online on various devices, and video games.
Adolescents aged 13 to 15 also showed evidence of a link between electronics use and trouble sleeping, while children aged six to 12 consumed more television, which delayed their sleep and resulted in sleepiness. quality deteriorated.
The findings were drawn by reviewing 49 studies published between 2009 and 2019, involving more than 3,69,000 children from high-income countries. NS Result Publishing this week in the magazine BMC Public Health
To understand how the use of electronics affects sleep, the authors considered parameters such as sleep time and sleep onset, sleep quality, sleep duration, and sleep duration during the day.
For children aged five or younger, electronic media access was primarily through television and tablets.
Children under the age of 12 delayed their bedtime and had poorer sleep quality, both due to television viewing. In many adolescents, there was an association between watching television and taking long naps during the day. However, there was no association between television use and trouble sleeping.
However, adolescents aged 13–15 had trouble sleeping, mainly due to social media use. Researchers say this is possible because interactive media is too stimulating and blue light from devices suppresses melatonin production, which promotes sleep.
Another way that media use interferes with sleep is through time replacement, where time spent on screens replaces time spent sleeping each night, without compensating for lost sleep.
The paper concludes that interactive forms of electronic media, such as the Internet and social media, have a much more adverse effect on sleep quality and ability to fall asleep than passive consumption of television.
The study, however, is limited by the fact that it was a review of existing, well-designed studies and was not a randomized controlled trial in itself. Children and adolescents are also more likely to experience sleep delays for no apparent reason, and incidentally use electronic media before bedtime.
The study also didn’t account for people who actually used their devices to help them sleep. Additionally, self-reported and parent-reported data about sleeping adolescents tended to be inaccurate, with both groups over-reporting sleep duration or quality.
(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)
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