Toddlers ‘lose 16 minutes of sleep for every hour on tablet or smartphone’
ToDDLERS are losing sleep at night because of the amount of time they spend playing on smartphones and tablets, a major study has found.
Young children lose almost 16 minutes of sleep for every hour in front of a touchscreen, scientists said.
Growing numbers of parents now give their children gadgets to play with because of the devices’ colourful and educational games. Research shows toddlers use them for an average of 45 minutes a day.
But the first study of touchscreen use among children aged six months to three years found the devices may stop them sleeping properly – potentially harming brain development.
Tablets and smartphones are believed to overexcite children before bedtime, while the blue light they emit disrupts their body clocks by suppressing the sleep hormone melatonin.
The harmful effect is more worrying than for older children and teenagers, as sleep plays a vital role in the brain development of the very young.
The study, by Birkbeck, university of London and King’s College London, surveyed 715 families. It found that every hour of touchscreen use cuts night-time sleep by 26.4 minstudy utes. Toddlers and babies often try to make up this time by napping, but only get almost 11 minutes back by sleeping during the day.
This means 15.6 minutes are lost every 24 hours, for an hour of touchscreen use.
Dr Tim Smith, of Birkbeck, said: ‘These results indicate that the popularity and accessibility of touchscreen devices has led to high levels of usage by babies and toddlers, and this is associated with reduced sleep.
‘Future research is now needed to build on this initial to try and understand whether touchscreen use is causing sleep problems and how [to] mitigate these risks.’
Dr Anna Joyce, research associate in cognitive developmental psychology at Coventry university, said: ‘In light of these findings and what we know from previous research, it may be worth parents limiting touchscreen, other media use and blue light in the hours before bedtime.’
Tablets and smartphones have been shown to help young improve their fine motor skills. But the devices are now a constant in family life, the study found, with three-quarters of children aged six months to three years using a touchscreen daily.
The researchers asked parents about their children’s touchscreen use – which was as high as 45 minutes a day on average for toddlers aged 26 months to three years. The families also answered questions on their children’s sleep patterns.
The study said sleep was the ‘dominant activity’ of babies and toddlers, playing an important role in their development.
It added: ‘The content of the media may elevate psychological and physiological arousal, making it more difficult for children to fall asleep and reducing the quality of sleep.’
Another theory is that toddlers who are already hyperactive – and having sleep issues – may be given a tablet to entertain them.
other youngsters may delay sleeping to play with a device left in their room.
Poor sleep at a very young age has been linked to later problems with social adjustment and school achievement.
But the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, found no link between touchscreen use and how often children woke up at night. Experichildren mental psychologist Dr Andrew Przybylski, from oxford university, said the research should be interpreted with ‘extreme caution’.
He added that it reported a ‘modest correlation between factors that confirm our fears as parents’.
‘Limiting use before bedtime’