Use of electronic devices before bedtimes can hamper sleeping hours in children, reveals a recent study.
The study says that children aged between 11 and 13 who use social media sites before going to sleep report lesser hours of sleep
"Using technology in the bedroom may result in sleep loss, delays in initiating sleep, daytime sleepiness and more," said Teresa Arora, the lead author of the study, reports Reuters. "In turn, this may affect daytime performance, particularly at school."
The researchers based their findings on the data collected on sleeping habits and gadgets usage in 738 children from seven different schools in the Midlands region, England, in 2010.
Children between 11 and 13 should at least sleep continuously for 10-11 hours. According to the researchers, children who go on social networking sites prior to their bed times suffer from maximum sleep loss. They reported eight hours 10 minutes sleeping hours on an average compared to non-users who sleep for nearly nine hours and two minutes.
The children who watch televisions before sleeping reported four times more interrupted sleep and in case of web savvy children the instances were three times more compared to the non-users. Significant reduction in sleep was also observed among children who listened to music or played video games before they went to bed.
"The advent of technology has made every age group, but especially teenagers, have difficulties with their sleep," said Dr. Nanci Yuan, medical director of the Sleep Center at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, California, in a statement.
Christina Calamaro, who has studied and researched effects of technology on sleeping hours but was not a part of the recent study, advises that the children should do away with the electronic devices one hour before their bed timings. She also emphasized that health experts should make parents understand the importance of adequate and less interrupted sleep.
