Preschoolers who watch TV sleep less

May 14, 2019

Science Daily/University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Preschoolers who watch TV sleep significantly less than those who don't, according to new research by University of Massachusetts Amherst neuroscientist Rebecca Spencer and developmental science graduate student Abigail Helm.

More surprising to Spencer, known for her groundbreaking research into the role of naps in children's memory and learning, 36 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds had TVs in their bedroom, and a third of those kids fell asleep with the TV on, often watching stimulating or violent adult programming.

The study, published in Sleep Health, the journal of the National Sleep Foundation, suggests that TV use by young children affects the quality and duration of sleep, measured for the first time by an actigraphic device kids wore like a watch on their wrist. Moreover, while daytime napping was found to increase among the kids who watched the most TV, it did not fully compensate for the lost sleep at night.

"The good news is, this is addressable," says Spencer, referring to the opportunity to educate parents about the new, myth-shattering evidence that TV does not help young children fall asleep. "Parents assumed that TV was helping their kids wind down. But it didn't work. Those kids weren't getting good sleep, and it wasn't helping them fall asleep better. It's good to have this data."

The findings of Spencer and Helm come on the heels of new guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO), which say children between age 2 and 4 years should have no more than one hour of "sedentary screen time" daily -- and less or no screen time is even better. Similarly, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that daily screen time for 2- to 5-year-olds be limited to one hour of "high-quality programs," and that parents should watch the programs with their children. The WHO also emphasized the importance of young children getting "better quality" sleep for their long-term health.

Some 54 percent of kids in the UMass Amherst study are not meeting the WHO's TV-viewing guidelines on weekdays, and the figure jumps to 87 percent on weekends, Spencer says.

In addition to a dearth of data on TV viewing and sleep among this age group, previous research that does exist has relied on parent-reported measures of sleep, and "parents tend to overestimate sleep duration," according to the study. "One of the biggest advantages we have in our approach is the use of these actigraphs," which have been found to provide a reliable measure of sleep, Spencer says.

The new research piggybacked on Spencer's larger study about young children's sleep and cognition, supported by a National Institutes of Health grant. "Given that we already have some data about why sleep and naps are important for young kids, we decided to look into what are the factors that determine when they sleep, how they sleep and why they sleep," Spencer says.

A "very diverse" group of 470 preschoolers from Western Massachusetts participated in the study, wearing actigraphs for up to 16 days. Their parents and caregivers answered questionnaires about demographics and the children's health and behavior, including detailed questions on TV use. Among the findings:

·     Preschoolers who watch less than one hour of TV per day get 22 more minutes of sleep at night -- or nearly 2.5 hours per week -- than those who watch more than an hour of TV daily.

·     On average, young children without TVs in their bedrooms slept 30 minutes more at night than those with a TV in their bedroom.

·     Although kids with TVs in their bedroom slept on average 12 minutes longer during naps, they still slept 17 minutes less during a 24-hour period than kids without TVs in their bedroom.

Spencer says she plans to expand future child sleep studies to examine the impact of hand-held digital devices, such as iPads and smartphones. She also points out that TV use by kids as reported by their parents is likely to be underestimated.

"I think TV is its own beast to understand," she says.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190514110316.htm

Kids' sleep may suffer from moms' tight work schedules

October 15, 2018

Science Daily/Penn State

After studying the sleep habits of children from ages five to nine, researchers found that when mothers reported less flexibility in their work schedules, their children got less sleep. When they gained flexibility in their work schedules, their children slept more.

However, this link diminished when the researchers accounted for whether the children were given regular bedtime routines, suggesting consistent bedtimes may be the key to offsetting damage done by tight work schedules.

Orfeu Buxton, professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State, said the results give clues into how and why a parent's work schedule may affect their children's sleep.

"We've seen this link between inflexible work schedules and children's sleep patterns before, but we didn't know why it was happening," Buxton said. "Our results suggest that maybe it's about children not having a regular bedtime routine if their mother is working an inflexible job. We know positive routines especially are very important for positive child growth, so sleep may suffer if it's not there."

The researchers said the findings -- recently published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies -- also suggest that it could be helpful for employers to create policies that give employees more flexibility, both for the health of the employees and their children.

Soomi Lee, now an assistant professor at University of South Florida, who led the paper while a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State, said employers could begin by considering how to change both the structural and cultural practices that may hinder flexibility.

"If workplaces could improve employees' flexibility and control over when and where they work, that could be helpful," Lee said. "They could offer diverse flexible work options for employees, especially for working mothers, such as flextime, telecommuting, or job-sharing with another employee."

Buxton said the study gives parents with inflexible work schedules a way to possibly help their kids get more sleep.

"If parents can be there for their kids on a regular basis, and help them by having a regular bedtime routine, all of that's very beneficial for their long-term growth and development," Buxton said. "Children can be a delight to watch go to sleep. Perhaps you could start with a bath, then brushing teeth and reading books to create this sort of calm, together time as a family."

The researchers used data from 1,040 mothers and their children for the study. When the children were five and nine years old, their mothers were asked questions about how flexible they felt their jobs were. For example, if their "work schedule had enough flexibility to handle family needs."

At each time point, the mothers were also asked if their child had a regular bedtime, if their child had difficulty getting to sleep, and how many hours a night their child usually slept.

Buxton said it was important to measure how flexible the mothers thought their job schedules were, because some employers say their positions are flexible, but only ways that benefit the employer.

"Many adults, especially low-socioeconomic status workers who are single moms, are clock punching," Buxton said. "In many of these positions, people may be called in at the last minute, or sent home early after planning to be at work for a full day. Or, if they punch in five minutes late, they could get written up. These rigid environments are very flexible from the employer's perspective, but not at all useful to the employee."

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that overall, less workplace flexibility was associated with shorter child sleep time. An increase in workplace flexibility from when a mother's child was five to when he or she was nine was associated with children sticking to their bedtimes better and a 44 percent lower chance of the child having trouble getting to sleep.

Lee said that in addition to having implications for workplace practices, the findings also suggest ways healthcare workers can help families.

"Previous research has shown that early bedtime practices can have long-term influences on individual sleep," Lee said. "Clinicians and practitioners could consider speaking with working mothers about how to improve their children's bedtime routines. Future research could also continue to identify other modifiable factors linking parents' work and child sleep, so we can intervene to promote sleep health from childhood and to reduce future sleep health disparities."

Buxton and colleagues are continuing this research to the next study, in the transition to young adulthood, how sleep health trajectories may contribute to the emergence and persistence of modifiable disparities in sleep and well-being.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181015105448.htm