I've always thought that Exposure to screens before bed could make children's sleep difficult, imagining that they could be more nervous and vulnerable just at a time when tranquility is required.
Now the American Pediatric Association proves me right with the results of a study conducted in New Zealand (and published in Pediatrics) among more than 2000 children and adolescents aged five to 18 years. The objective has been associate pre-sleep activities (that is, everything that children do since 90 minutes before bedtime) with the onset of sleep.
Apparently, watching television turns out to be the most frequent activity among children, reaching a third of this 'pre-sleep' period. It has been discovered that children with greater exposure to the screen before going to sleep take longer to fall asleep
Among the activities that the children do in the last minutes of the day, they are also having dinner, preparing to sleep, doing homework (not recommended when they are tired), listening to music or reading.
American pediatricians claim that any intervention to reduce exposure to television at night will encourage children to fall asleep earlier (The results show a difference of up to 13 minutes, which are many at that time), and probably a longer duration in the hours of sleep.
So you know: no television (no video games) for (at least) the last 90 minutes before bedtime. Instead we can spend some time talking with the kids, giving them a relaxing foot massage, listening to classical music or brushing their hair, and especially reading them a story, and all that wrapped in a calm atmosphere, lowering their voice and using A dimmer light.
That the children sleep well and enough hours, we are interested (and not only because their academic performance will be affected), and that is that anyone is in a better mood after having rested well.
