{"id":87925,"date":"2015-02-03T08:03:52","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T08:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=87925"},"modified":"2015-02-03T08:03:52","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T08:03:52","slug":"screen-time-harms-teenagers-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=87925","title":{"rendered":"Screen time ‘harms teenagers’ sleep’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The longer a teenager spends using electronic devices such as tablets and smartphones, the worse their sleep will be, a study of nearly 10,000 16- to 19-year-olds suggests.<\/p>\n

More than two hours of screen time after school was strongly linked to both delayed and shorter sleep.<\/p>\n

Almost all the teens from Norway said they used the devices shortly before going to bed.<\/p>\n

Many said they often got less than five hours sleep a night, BMJ Open reports.<\/p>\n

The teens were asked questions about their sleep routine on weekdays and at weekends, as well as how much screen time they clocked up outside school hours.<\/p>\n

On average, girls said they spent around five and a half hours a day watching TV or using computers, smartphones or other electronic devices. And boys spent slightly more time in front of a screen – around six and a half hours a day, on average.<\/p>\n

Playing computer games was more popular among the boys, whereas girls were more likely to spend their time chatting online.<\/p>\n

\"teen<\/div>\n

Any type of screen use during the day and in the hour before bedtime appeared to disrupt sleep – making it more difficult for teenagers to nod off.<\/p>\n

And the more hours they spent on gadgets, the more disturbed their sleep became.<\/p>\n

When daytime screen use totalled four or more hours, teens had a 49% greater risk of taking longer than an hour to fall asleep.<\/p>\n

These teens also tended to get less than five hours of sleep per night.<\/p>\n

Sleep duration went steadily down as gadget use increased.<\/p>\n

It may be that playing on electronic devices leaves teens with less time to do other things, including sleep, say the researchers – Dr Mari Hysing and colleagues at Uni Research Health, Bergen.<\/p>\n

But it could be that screen time interferes with sleepiness.<\/p>\n

Staring at an illuminated screen at bedtime could send the wrong signals to our brain, disrupting our natural body clock making us more alert, they suggest.<\/p>\n

Dr Hysing said her findings had implications for the wider population as so many people use these devices.<\/p>\n

“We know that sufficient sleep is essential for good physical and mental health. Logging off may be one important step toward securing a good night’s sleep.”<\/p>\n

Prof Russell Foster, an expert in sleep and neuroscience at the University of Oxford, said: “This is an important study as it provides empirical evidence that the use of electronic devices before bed does indeed reduce sleep duration.”<\/p>\n

He said teenagers should be warned of this.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The longer a teenager spends using electronic devices such as tablets and smartphones, the worse their sleep will be, a study of nearly 10,000 16- to 19-year-olds suggests. More than two hours of screen time after school was strongly linked to both delayed and shorter sleep. Almost all the teens from Norway said they used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-87925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-chinese"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}