8 August 2012
|
LA Times
What your kids watch on TV can affect how well they sleep, a new study
suggests. Published in the journal Pediatrics, the
study found that when parents
intervened in their kids’ media diet - reducing exposure to violent and
age-inappropriate content and replacing it with age-appropriate,
educational and empathy-building content such as "Curious
George,""Sesame Street" and "Dora the Explorer" - the children had
fewer sleep problems, less aggression, and increased empathetic and
friendly behaviors. Child sleep problems include difficulty falling asleep, night wakings,
nightmares, difficulty waking and daytime tiredness. All have been
linked to higher rates of injuries, behavioral and emotional problems,
obesity and difficulties in school later on. “A lot of studies are focused on tailoring the amount of TV [children
watch] or trying to get people to stop altogether," said Michele
Garrison of Seattle Children's Research Institute, lead author of the
new study. She and her colleagues took a different tack. "We looked to have parents
make a more feasible change - switching to more age-appropriate
content,” she said. The study, which was funded by the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development, involved 565 children of ages 3 to 5 from the
Seattle metropolitan area over a period of 18 months, and their
families.
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