A recent study, Media use and Child Sleep: The Impact of Content, Timing, and Environment, has found that young children who engage with media by watching TV, using computers or playing video games after 7pm are more likely to have sleep issues such as repeated night waking, nightmares and daytime tiredness.

It was also noted that watching violent content any time of the day was associated with sleep problems.

The study took nearly 600 children aged between 3 and 5 years old. They completed media diaries that captured time, content title, and co-use of television, video-game, and computer usage; titles were coded for ratings, violence, scariness, and pacing. Nested linear regression models were built to examine the impact of timing, content, and co-use on the sleep problem score.

The study found that on average children were exposed to nearly 73 minutes of media screen time each day. 18% of parents said their child had at least one sleep problem.

Children with televisions in their bedrooms watched more violent content and were more likely to have sleep problems.

The authors concluded that “Pediatricians can advise parents to focus on reducing violent content and evening media use, which may be both more acceptable and feasible for families living in the digital age than focusing on a global reduction or elimination of media use. For families reluctant to change their child’s media use, discussion about the impact on sleep may increase parental motivation.”

Conclusions:
Violent content and evening media use are associated with increased sleep problems. However, no such effects were observed with nonviolent daytime media use.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Media Use and Child Sleep: The Impact of Content, Timing, and Environment. Michelle M. Garrison, PhD, Kimberly Liekweg, BA,  Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH