How much TV is too much for kids?
Donya Betancourt, Pediatrician, drdonya@hotmail.com
How many hours each weekday does the average child in Asia watch television? We will probably never know the correct answer.
What we do know is that children who spend more than an average of two hours per weekday, are at an increased risk for eating poorly, obesity, performing poorly in school and being less successful in social situations.
Studies suggest that the longer children sit in front of a TV, the less likely they are to sleep well. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children younger than age 2 should not watch television at all.
The AAP statement explained that early brain development research finds parental interaction with babies and toddlers as a key factor in quality child development. Television may divert or even subjugate this key element all together.
A study published in the Journal of Pediatrics took an extensive look at the relationship between children's viewing habits and the quality of their sleep.
The report recommended that health care practitioners should question parents about their children's viewing habits when diagnosing, treating and screening for health disorders.
The result of the study was that each of the households had an average of two television sets. Over 76.6 percent of the families had cable TV and 99.8 percent owned one or more VCRs. 70.1 percent of the children watched television for two hours per weekday and two to three hours on weekends.
Their parents usually limited their own viewing during the week to two hours per day.
Although parents surveyed closely monitored what their children watched on TV and for how long, over 26 percent of them did report that at least one child had a television set in the bedroom, and interestingly, 67 percent of parents also had television sets in their bedrooms.
The study found that having a television set in the bedroom directly affected the child's quality of sleep, conversely the majority of parents felt that television had a negligible, if any, effect on their children's sleep.
Television viewing at bedtime, and overall heavy television viewing, caused children to resist going to bed, to have trouble falling asleep, and to sleep less than the recommended eight hours.
TV watching habits, such as falling asleep in front of the television, seemed to cause sleep disturbances in 25 percent of children with behavioral sleep disorders.
The children's sleepiness had an effect on their waking life. Teachers in the surveyed schools said that percentages of the children had difficulty staying awake in morning classes (9.1%) and afternoon classes (11.4%), and 10.6 percent of the children complained about their sleep.
"Television may serve to displace sleep time, thus shortening sleep duration to unacceptable limits," stated the report. "The time spent by the child in television viewing may substitute for other less sedentary and/or less passive activities (like playing outside, engaging in sports activities), resulting in poor- quality sleep."
In addition to time spent watching television, the content of programming may have an effect on children's sleep patterns.
Those horror movies may not be innocent, scary fun after all. Children tend to have difficulty falling asleep and experience nightmares if they have watched violent or otherwise disturbing programming, especially before bedtime.
Regardless of the content of programs, children's sleep is most deeply affected by having a television in the bedroom and using it as a sleep aid. Well-meaning (or tired!) parents may contribute to this problem by using the television as a tranquilizer, a way to avoid bedtime struggles, or a way to help the child fall asleep.
As the study clearly shows, this belief indirectly contributes to greater sleep disturbances and increased resistance at bedtime.
In addition, although television viewing does not directly affect daytime sleepiness in children, it does contribute because of late nights and less physical activity during the day.
The report concluded that children's television viewing and increased sleepiness may become more entwined as the child grows older and bring about entrenched sleep habits that are unhealthy but difficult to change.
Your child deserves a healthy sleep. And if you hear noises in your child's bedroom late at night, you may want to change "Lights out" to "TV off!" We don't yet know how television damages sleep, but I know that my own children often sleep better after an active day.
My recommendation is keeping kids moving improves the appetite, the physique, overall development and can give everyone involved a better night's sleep!