Why you should not leave your child's mobile before going to sleep
Do you want your child to sleep well at night? It's easy: do not leave him the mobile or the tablet. Why? More and more studies show that these devices harm children's sleep, as recalled by the US Department of Health.
In a new work, researchers reviewed several studies and found a clear association between the use of these dispositives in children at the time of going to bed and insufficient sleep, a poor quality sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness.
A recommendation from pediatricians
"The lessons of the study are clear and worrisome." Dr. Henry Bernstein of the Cohen Pediatric Medical Center of New Hyde Park, in New York, which has warned that "more attention should be paid to the potential impact of access to mobile media about the children's sleep. "
Experts have long been recommending to the general population (children and adults) not to use the screens before sleeping. However, this study, prepared in the United Kingdom and published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, has a striking point: found that children did not even have to use smartphones, tablets or other devices to experience problems with sleep: "simply having them in your room was enough to show an effect," they say.
Although the study could not demonstrate a causal relationship, Researchers recommend measures to limit access to electronic devices at night: "Interventions should include a multidisciplinary approach by teachers and health care professionals to empower parents in order to minimize harmful influences on children's health, "they concluded in the paper.
The need to sleep well
We are not talking about something of little importance: sleep quality It depends a lot on how the children will act during the day, how much they will learn, and so on. And how is it possible that only with the presence of the mobile next door the dream is affected? Very easy: notifications. Experts recall that nightly use of electronic media can "delay Bedtime, increase the exposure to the lights of the screens that could confuse the body's biological clock, and even wake up the children with text messages and other notifications after they have fallen asleep. "
These doctors again influence the importance of sleep"Without sufficient quality sleep, children will be at a higher risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes, among other health conditions," says Bernstein, who puts another consequence on the table: "Children and adolescents will be less able to concentrate, they will not do as well in school, they will get sick more often and they will have a more changing mood. "
Damián Montero
