Too much television equals less time spent sleeping, according to a new study.
Published in the May issue of the journal Pediatrics, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), found a connection between "television viewing and shorter sleep duration."
Researchers followed 1,800 kids from the ages of six months to eight years. The children, along with their mothers, were enrolled in Project Viva, which is a long-term investigation of the health effects of several factors during pregnancy and after birth. Parents were asked to monitor how much TV the kids watched when they were six months old, and then every year after.
According to a news release, participants were asked to report "how much time each day infants were in a room where a television was on, how much time older children watched television daily, whether children ages [four] to [seven] slept in a room where a TV was present and their child's average daily amount of sleep."
According to the study, researchers stated that "the mere presence of a television in the room where a child sleeps affects their sleep." The seven-year-long study found that each additional hour of television viewing was associated with seven fewer minutes of sleep daily; the effects appear to be stronger in boys than in girls.
The link was significant in children from minority groups. Researchers stated that racial and ethnic minority children were more likely to sleep in rooms with a television. This had a drastic effect on sleep duration; children with TVs had 30 minutes less sleep than kids without a TV in their rooms.
The researchers said the connection between the two factors was small but consistent. The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends limiting screen time to 1-2 hours per day. Sleep deprivation in kids is linked to worse performance in school, depression, injury, and obesity.
"The study authors note their results support previous short-term studies finding that both television viewing and sleeping in a room with a television decrease total sleep time, which can have negative effects on both mental and physical health," the news release reported.
