Ironically, young children and babies who are overtired often have difficulty sleeping. If your child is having a hard time going to sleep at night, try putting her to bed thirty minutes earlier rather than later. Studies have shown that children who had a TV in their room watched about 40 more minutes of TV a day and had more sleep problems than their peers. Having a screen in their room also makes it easier for kids to watch violent shows without your supervision.
But if your child is having trouble winding down or staying down, consider a tweak to your family routine. Swap more calming activities like reading practice, story time, bathing and crafts into the evening, while pushing their allotted screen time to the morning or afternoon.
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Learn more. Learn why, and how you can catch up on the latest Game of Thrones episodes without compromising your night of sleep. The artificial light emitted by your TV screen contains a high proportion of blue light. This can make it harder to fall asleep and make you more restless when you finally do.
Learn more about why blue light is bad for your sleep. A study 2 conducted at Ohio State University found that when hamsters were exposed to constant dim light, they showed symptoms indicative of depression and their sleep-wake cycles were disturbed. While we are asleep, our brains continue to register sounds on a basic level, meaning that excess nighttime noise can be disruptive. When sounds as commonplace as birdcalls, or even a familiar din such as a bustling city, can sometimes wake us up, the high-volume audio of some TV shows are sure to upset our sleep.
Why is TV especially disruptive, as opposed to background noises like a fan or even music? Background noise can actually be beneficial by reducing the difference between ambient noise and startling, higher-volume blasts.
Are you concerned that you or a loved one is excessively sleepy during the day? Take our sleepiness quiz and share the results with your doctor. Sleepiness Quiz. You could even go so far as to set your TV to turn off automatically at a certain time in order to cut out light after you go to sleep.
Make sure you don't become too dependent on TV as a sleep aid, either. Reinforcing the association between TV and sleep can make it difficult to drift off without it, says Dr. One strategy might be to slowly whittle down your TV use and institute new calming bedtime behaviors like reading, meditating, or journaling, says Brantner. Using your TV as a sleep aid might not be the best way to promote good sleep hygiene. But if the alternative is full-on sleep deprivation , it may be better than nothing—although more research needs to be done to know for sure.
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