Violent media ''affects children''s sleep''
Children could be achieving less sound sleep as a result of exposure to violent media, it has been claimed.
A new study carried out by researchers at the University of Seattle and reported by Healthcare Today has revealed that when
children are exposed to 20 minutes of violent media during the day, this can have a dramatic impact on their ability to sleep in the evening.
Researchers split a group of 565 families with children aged three to five into two groups in a year-long study, with half being allowed to watch age-restricted content on the television during the day and the other not.
Findings showed that those who were not exposed to violent media were able to get to sleep 20 minutes sooner on average at night.
The news follows the publication of a recent study by Shanghai Children's Medical Centre which revealed sleep is extremely important for a child's performance in school.
Lead researcher Jiang Fan commented: "The group that slept less scored lower in all the eight test categories from memory, logic [and] reasoning to attention. The result surprised us as we never realised that the amount of sleep can make such a big difference in children."
Posted by Elizabeth Mewes
