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More sleep problems associated with more violent television programs
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Children who watch violent shows before bed may have sleep problems, according to findings from a recently published study.
Michelle M. Garrison, PhD, of the Seattle Children’s Research Institute, and colleagues examined data on 565 Seattle-area children aged 3 to 5 years who were asked to replace “violent or age-inappropriate media content with quality educational and prosocial content,” which they defined as shows like Sesame Street, Curious George and Dora the Explorer. The researchers monitored the children’s sleep patterns for 18 months using a subset of the Child Sleep Habits Questionnaire.
The researchers said children in the group advised about a healthy media diet, were 29% less likely to have sleep problems at follow-up than children in the control group.
“Clinicians and parents should be mindful that healthy media use choices could be a valuable strategy in treating and preventing child sleep problems,” the researchers concluded. “Given that early childhood sleep problems have been associated with a range of deleterious outcomes, both acute and long-term, including increased injuries, behavioral and emotional problems, difficulties in school and obesity, the availability of useful, feasible strategies is critical.”
The researchers said the most common sleep problem was “sleep-onset latency,” which occurred in about 40% of the group.
According to Garrison, “When we coached parents on making healthy media choices for their preschool children in this randomized trial, we saw a significant and sustained reduction in sleep problems – both in children who had parent-reported sleep problems at the beginning of the study and among those who did not.”
Disclosure: Dr. Garrison reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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