A new study suggests that an increased time spent watching TV is connected to poor sleep among children.
The study was published in the journal Pediatrics, according to Forbes.
Elizabeth Cespedes, lead author of the study from the Harvard School of Public in Boston, pointed out the effects that a lack of sleep can have on kids' physical and mental health, Fox News reported.
"Inadequate sleep in childhood is associated with health outcomes, including attention problems, school performance and an increased risk of obesity," Cespedes said. "We want to know if television viewing may be associated with shorter sleep duration in children."
Cespedes and researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) kept track of over 1,800 kids from infancy to when they were about eight years old. Their parents told the researchers how much the children watched TV when they were six months old, and then every year after, Forbes reported.
The researchers also studied how much time the kids spent with a TV, and if they had a TV in their rooms as they grew up. The variable of interest was the amount of sleep they got at night.
The results showed that the average time kids slept each day declined from almost 12 hours at six months to almost 10 hours at age seven, and the amount of TV viewing grew from close to one hour per day to 1.6 hours. The amount of kids who slept with a TV in their bedroom increased from 17 percent to 23 percent between ages four and seven, Fox News reported.
The study also found that minority children received less sleep when they had a TV in their room, which Cespedes said is difficult to figure out.
Possible reasons for the connection with TV time and poor sleep include stimulation from watching TV could "phase shift", or delay by sleep cycle, the beginning of sleep. Getting worried or anxious from watching violent TV can also interrupt kids' sleep, Forbes reported.
Dr. Heidi Connolly, a sleep specialist, said kids can develop good sleeping behaviors by limiting time spent watching TV and consistent betimes, Fox News reported.
"I think it's unreasonable to expect that kids aren't going to watch TV," Connolly said. "It's pervasive in our culture. But you do want to limit screen time to less than two hours per day."
