Small screens steal a child's dream

Children who use smartphones and tablets in their bedrooms sleep less than their peers. The results of a new study indicate that small screens can be harmful for children's development than for a long period of watching TV.

In a study published 5 Jan 2015 in the publication Pediatrics, a group of scientists headed by Jennifer Falbe (Jennifer Falbe) from the University of California at Berkeley presented the results of studying the influence of mobile devices on children's sleep. Scientists have studied the daily routine of 2048 American students in fourth and seventh grade.

As it turned out, children, having unsupervised access to smartphones and tablets, sleep less on average 21 minutes a day. At first glance, this quite a bit, but the more time children spent in front of a small screen, the more they complained about the lack of sleep.

In most cases, children are using mobile devices for playing games."The presence of mobile devices in the room where the child sleeps, now can definitely associate with the feeling of fatigue and lack of sleep, says Jennifer Falbe. — The results of the study caution against unrestricted access to smartphones and tablets in children's bedrooms".

Previously, scientists conducted a similar study on the effect of TV on sleep in children. Researchers from children's hospital of MGHfC and the Harvard school of public health (HSPH) for seven years has watched over 1800 children from six months of age. The results showed that each additional hour of watching TV deprived children seven minutes of sleep, and the boys, the negative effect was more noticeable. On average, the presence of television in child's bedroom reduces the amount of sleep for 18 minutes a day.

It is hard to say, can be summed up the negative effect of television and mobile devices. However, sleep deprivation can have a devastating effect on mental and physical development of the child. We already know that lack of sleep increases the risk of obesity, reduces school performance and impedes the development of habits to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Unfortunately, there is no universal recipe for solving the problem. Children spend a lot of time in front of TV screens, smartphones and computers. Parents have to ensure that the child is devoted to fun and useful for the development of multimedia technologies the minimum amount of time. At the same time, information technologies are a key part of modern society, therefore the problem cannot be solved by a simple ban — in this case children will be very difficult to socialize. published

Source: ruslekar.info/Malenkie-ekrani-kradut-detskiy-son-3158.html