Got a teenager in the family who spends all day staring at the screens of electronic devices? Then chances are he or she is not getting enough sleep at night, researchers say.
That's the finding of a study of almost 10,000 teenagers in Norway who were queried on the amount of screen time they spent outside of their schools on computers, smartphones, television, tablets, MP3 players or video games.
They were then asked about the quality and amount of sleep they got at night.
Their responses suggest using electronic devices during the day and most especially in the final hour preceding bedtime was linked to an elevated risk of needing more than 60 minutes to fall asleep, the researchers report in the journal BMJ Open.
Noting that "almost all American adolescents (97 percent)" are reported to "have at least one electronic media device in their bedroom," the researchers say it's not surprising their study found evidence of a "parallel shift" towards "poorer sleep over the past decades among adolescents."
Screen use in excess of 4 hours during daytime was linked with a 49 percent greater risk of needing longer than an hour to fall asleep, and an increase of 3.5 times the likelihood of getting less than 5 hours of sleep, the study authors say.
Computers, the most commonly utilized type of electronic device, also had the strongest link with insufficient sleep, they say.
The researchers offered several possible explanations for the sleep problems uncovered in their study, suggesting excessive usage of electronic devices could simply be leaving less time available for sleep, or such devices may be interfering with sleep by over-stimulating the nervous system, or the light of the devices' screens may may be disrupting the body's internal wake/sleep clock.
The study findings suggest a need to update current guidelines on usage of such devices and better guidance given to parents on monitoring the amount and timing of consumption of electronic media, the researchers say.
"The current recommendation is not to have a TV in the bedroom. It seems, however, that there may be other electronic devices exerting the same negative influence on sleep, such as PCs and mobile phones," they wrote. "The results confirm recommendations for restricting media use in general."
The best way to help adolescents who have problems sleeping may be by taking advantage of the very electronic devices causing the problems, the researchers suggest.
"While technology use may be a source of sleep deficiency, it may also serve as a medium of intervention, as internet-based interventions have proven to be effective, and cost-efficient, modes of treating sleep problems," they note.
