Computers and phones - the culprits of anxiety and insomnia

TVs, computers, and cell phones in a child's bedroom can cause anxiety and interfere with good sleep.

Researchers advise parents to remove televisions, computers and mobile phones from their children's bedrooms immediately because these devices cause anxiety, disrupt sleep and affect children's academic performance.

Placing a TV and game console in the bedroom causes the brain to "identify" the bedroom as a place for entertainment rather than a place for quiet and rest.

Playing violent games in the bedroom causes the brain to see this as a dangerous place and to be "on guard".

Last year a 2012 study by consumer body Ofcom found that teenagers send an average of 193 texts a week, double the number in 2011. 70% of teenagers have a TV in their bedroom.

According to research published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, cutting sleep by just an hour can negatively affect a child’s academic performance. Elementary school students who stay up late have more difficulty solving math problems and have poorer memory skills.

However, pushing bedtime up earlier — even just 60 minutes — will help your child feel calmer and better able to concentrate.

"One of the biggest culprits of sleep deprivation and sleep disturbance is technology," said the lead author of the article, psychologist Jennifer Vriend, PhD, of Dalhousie University, Canada.

Many teens sleep with their phones close at hand and are often woken up throughout the night by their phones vibrating and ringing when they receive text messages, emails, or Facebook messages.

“Putting TVs and game consoles in the bedroom is also a problem. It trains the brain to see it as a place of entertainment rather than a quiet environment for sleep.

"Therefore, when teenagers play violent games regularly in their bedrooms, their brains will begin to see this place as a place to be alert and ready for danger; the brain will not want to "sleep" in such an environment."

Getting enough sleep will lead to more stable emotions, more positive moods and improved attention, all of which will improve children's academic performance, Dr. Vriend added.

"Moreover, when we sleep, what we learn during the day will be reinforced, so children who lack sleep will "lose" knowledge twice."

The above results are based on a study conducted on 32 children (8-12 years old) who had an average rest time of 9 hours per night.

During the first week, the children kept their normal routines, but then the group was divided into two, with half of them cutting back on their sleep for four consecutive days while the other group continued as normal. On average, children who went to bed an hour earlier got 73 more minutes of sleep than those who went to bed an hour later, but the effects were significant.

After four days, the children were given a series of basic tests to assess their math proficiency, attention, short-term memory, and working memory, while parents kept a diary of their children's behavior.

The study results showed that: "Even modest differences in sleep duration, accumulated over a few days, can affect important cognitive and emotional functions in children. It can be assumed that long-term sleep deprivation will have much worse consequences.

"The study highlights the need to educate health care professionals, teachers, parents and students about the importance of healthy sleep habits and the negative consequences of sleep deprivation."

According to Dan Tri / Telegraph