A new study has found that a smartphone does more harm to a child’s good sleeping habits than a television.
The study, which involved over 2,000 elementary and middle-school students, found that a smartphone or tablet in the bedroom was linked with less weekday sleep as well as causing sleepy and drowsy feeling in the daytime.
Study lead author Jennifer Falbe, of the School of Public Health at Berkeley’s University of California, “Studies have shown that traditional screens and screen time, like TV viewing, can interfere with sleep, but much less is known about the impacts of smartphones and other small screens.”
In the internet age, youths and children are getting more fascinated toward tabs and smartphones as they offer easy access to a wide range of content like videos, games, websites and many more.
But the use of smart devices at bed-time interrupts sleep.
“It was found that both sleeping in a room with a TV set and sleeping near a small screen were associated with shorter weekday sleep duration,” Falbe said.
The lead author further added, “Children who slept near a small screen, compared to those who did not, were also more likely to feel like they did not get enough sleep.”
The children who went to bed with a smartphone slept 37 minutes later as compared to those having a bedroom TV, who were found sleeping 31 minutes later.
The findings of study were published online on January 5 as well as in the February print issue of the journal Pediatrics.
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