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NTT DoCoMo employee presents the new 'P901iTV' mobile phone that will enable users to view television broadcasts on their phones, at the CEATEC JAPAN international electronics technology convention in Makuhari city, Chiba province PHOTO - TASR/EPA |
NEW YORK - Parents who are having difficulty getting their infant or toddler to stick to a
consistent naptime and bedtime should consider reducing the amount of time their child spends glued to the tube. Those who struggle with keeping their child on schedule should "think about how much media they're using," said Dr. Darcy A. Thompson, at the University of Washington in Seattle and Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis of Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.
Children in the United States are known to watch more than 19 hours of television each week, but the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under the age of 2 not watch any television and those older than 2 years watch less than 2 hours per day. Studies reveal various adverse effects associated with television viewing, including obesity, aggressive behavior, attention problems, poor sleep habits and disordered sleep. Few researchers have investigated the effects of television viewing among infants and toddlers, however.
Thompson and Christakis analyzed data from the National Survey of Early Childhood Health, on 2,068 children aged 4 to 35 months. They found that children less than a year old generally watched less than an hour of television per day, but those aged 12 to 23 months, watched 1.6 hours of television each day, and those 24 to 35 months watched more than 2 hours of daily television.
Also, 34 percent of children had irregular naptimes and 27 percent had irregular bedtimes. Overall, the more time children spent in front of the television, the more likely they were to have irregular sleeping schedules.
The reason for the association between television viewing and sleep disturbances is unknown, but one theory is that the bright light of the television before sleep may interfere with the normal sleep/wake cycle. Also, rather than calming children before bed, TV viewing may stimulate them. Thompson recommends that parents not only remove televisions from their child's room, but that they also "closely monitor" their child's television viewing. Reuters
