TV viewing ‘can have a negative impact on children’s sleep’

New research has demonstrated the potentially damaging impact that excessive television viewing can have on young children's sleeping habits.

Investigators from MassGeneral Hospital for Children and Harvard School of Public Health followed more than 1,800 children between the ages of six months and nearly eight years, finding a small but consistent association between increased TV viewing and shorter sleep duration.

Over the seven years of the study, each additional hour of viewing was associated with seven fewer minutes of sleep per day, with the effects appearing to be stronger in boys than in girls.

Racial and ethnic minority children were also revealed to be much more likely to sleep in a room where a television was present, leading to an average sleep reduction of around half an hour per day.

The findings tally with past research on this topic, with previous short-term studies finding that both television viewing and sleeping in a room with a TV set decrease total sleep time, leading to negative effects on both mental and physical health. Smartphone and tablet usage has also been linked to similar trends.