Spanish children between the ages of six and 13 spend almost five hours a day in front of a screen. This data grows until it reaches six and a half hours on weekends, according to the latest report AIMC Children. Now the University of Southern Denmark has made a systematic review of 49 investigations on the relationship of electronic devices with rest in the youngest (children and adolescents up to 15 years), the results of which have been published in the journal BMC Public Health. The main conclusion is that there is a direct relationship between the use of electronic media and less sleep. But, in addition to this general conclusion, the researchers have collected results for each age group: between zero and five years, the use of television and tablets causes difficulties in falling asleep, in addition to a shorter duration of sleep. Extended television use is also associated with increased naps, suggesting a consolidation of poorer sleep and less mature sleep patterns.
In the next group, from six to 12 years, the use of screens, in general and especially before sleeping, and the presence of these devices in the bedroom is directly related to going to bed later and a lower quality of sleep. In addition, if these screens are television or mobile, it is associated with sleep disorders and waking up during the night.
The last age period, made up of adolescents up to 15 years of age, the use of devices, especially mobile phones and computers, also leads to a reduction in sleep hours, in addition to problems to reconcile it. In this group, the use of social networks is associated with poor sleep quality.
The lack of rest in these age groups can lead to difficulties in concentration and school performance and behavioral and behavioral alterations, as detailed Javier Puertas, vice president of the Spanish Sleep Society. But these are not the only consequences: “Growth hormone is secreted especially in one phase, during a type of brain activity called slow wave dreams. If the time we spend in that period of sleep is reduced because we produce fewer hours or because we have an alteration in its quality due to interruptions, less growth hormone is produced and there may be a decrease in said growth ”.
Growth hormone is secreted especially in one phase, during a type of brain activity called slow wave dreams. If the time we spend in that sleep period is reduced because we produce fewer hours or because we have an alteration in its quality due to interruptions, less growth hormone is produced
Javier Puertas, vice president of the Spanish Sleep Society
The review includes studies conducted between January 1, 2009 and August 31, 2019 in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and some that are the sum of research from various countries. The parameters that were analyzed are the time to go to sleep, the quality and duration of sleep and the fatigue the next day. They all have in common that they encompass various electronic devices: mobiles, televisions, tablets, computers and consoles. Regarding the population, it was divided into three periods: 0 to 3 years, 6 to 12 and 13 to 15 years. The number of children who participated in these analyzes was, in the case of the smallest 55 and, in the largest, 370,000, according to the team from the University of Southern Denmark. Lisbeth Lund, from the Danish National Institute of Public Health and one of the main authors of this review, explains that the data was initially commissioned by the Government to develop a guide. Finally, they decided to make them public because they consider it to be “an important field of public health and can be used by other countries to develop guidelines.”
This is not the first systematic review on this question. In 2015 it was published the first. In total, 20 studies were reviewed and the results are very similar to those reflected in this latest investigation: there is strong evidence of the link between access or use of devices and reduced quantity and quality of sleep, as well as the increased daytime sleepiness. Such is the concern for screens and minors that the World Health Organization (WHO) published in 2019 some guidelines for responsible use of these media in younger children. The most prominent recommendations are to avoid use in children under one year of age and once this stage has passed, do not use these devices for more than one hour until they are four years old. Either way, the WHO recommends spending as little time as possible with these tech tools.
Screens and children’s development, although not directly related to rest, has already been studied in Canadian children. The research showed that the more time spent with these devices between the ages of two and three, the poorer the performance later on when taking development tests later.
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