Babies should not sleep with light
Most parents tend to always leave a little light for fear that our children will be afraid of the dark. For this reason, it is common to find in the home of many families the light of the corridor lit or some device in the socket that offers a dim light in the baby's room. This custom has become a unnecessary and harmful habit for children, according to experts.
The baby from birth is accustomed to everything we teach him. Therefore, if we leave a light on, you will get used to it and, if you can not find it in the middle of the night, you may end up in a tantrum. It is recommended that babies sleep in a quiet and dark environment since they are born, without any light.
If the baby wakes up in the middle of the night because he is hungry or thirsty, it is best not to turn on the lights inside the baby's room. Let the tranquility and darkness remain in your room.
In the dark, we secrete the hormone melatonin, which helps us regulate the wakefulness of sleep. The more light in the room, the lower the production of melatonin, so it will be more difficult to fall asleep.
Light and myopia in children
A study published in the magazine Nature and made by the Medical Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the Childens Hospital of Philadelphia indicates that a 55 percent of children between 2 and 16 years who have slept with a lamp or light bulb in adulthood had problems with myopia in their vision, five times more than among the children who had slept in the dark during their first years of life.
The study also determined the following results:
- 10 percent of children aged between 2 and 16 years who had slept in the dark until 2 years of age had myopia.
- Up to 34 percent of children of the same age group who slept with light during their first two years of life, also had myopia, the difference is quite obvious, night-light affected 24 percent more children.
The authors want to emphasize that light is not the direct cause of myopia because it is an epidemiological analysis. But they affirm that the absence of darkness in the nocturnal sleep is an important risk factor for the future picture of myopia, since, around the first years of life the eye develops, therefore, it is more vulnerable to the light.
Definitely, We must avoid the use of light as a tool to calm and facilitate sleep. Children should sleep in the dark from birth, this will ensure the health of their eyes and prevent them from suffering from myopia.
Noelia de Santiago Monteserín
