Impact of television on the quality of sleep in preschool children.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to investigate the impact of different habits concerning television (TV) use and the time of day in which TV is watched on the sleep quality of young children.

METHODS

Parents of 100 healthy children (58% boys, mean age of 2.7 ± 1.5 years) attending a routine health check completed the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC) and a questionnaire concerning TV and electronic media use. Children were divided into those with a normal (SDSC-) or abnormal (SDSC+) questionnaire score. TV viewing habits were compared between groups.

RESULTS

The total sleep time and total TV viewing time were not different between groups. A TV set was inside each child's bedroom in 51% of participants. Children with a TV in their bedroom showed significantly higher scores in the "sleep terrors," "nightmares," "sleep talking," and "tired when waking up" responses of the SDSC (P = 0.02, 0.01, 0.01, and 0.01, respectively). Children with a TV in their room had an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 3.29 (1.08-9.99) for having an abnormal SDSC. Evening TV viewers had significantly higher SDSC scores compared with those who watched TV earlier during the day (P = 0.04).

CONCLUSIONS

The presence of a TV set in the child's bedroom was associated with significant reductions in the quality of young children's sleep. Evening exposure to TV was associated with significantly worse sleep quality.