A recent study done in Helsinki, Finland, confirms that TV viewing does have an effect on children's sleep. Researchers sent surveys to over 300 families with young children asking about ...
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Sue
Sunday, March 09, 2008 at 10:23 PMKids and TV
Florence Cardinal
Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 06:52 PMHi Sue. Sorry I didn't get back to you on this sooner. You are right, of course. Lots of things disturb a child's sleep. TV watching is just one of them, but it is something that's easy to control. So are video games and rough games. Emotional upheaval, things like divorce, death or illness may not ne so easy to control.
As far as not allowing tv at all, I wouldn't agree with that. Kids can learn a lot from TV. Shows like Sesame Street, science and nature shows, historical programming, are all gpod. But what children are watching should be monitored closely and I certinly don't condone using the TV as a babysitter.
Florence
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Hi Florence. Thought I might play devil's advocate here and see if we might spark a good old fashion debate with some of our other posters!
So I certianly agree too much tv with kids can be a bad thing - for lots of reasons. But I have to say I know many people who do not allow any television for their kids and they are still having sleeping issues. I just think there are so many elements to kids sleeping habits that stamping tv as the bad guy might not be fair. I wonder if there is a study that reveals what the sleeping habits are of kids who have no tv in the home?
Hope others out there will post their thoughts.
All the best, sue (a OurSleep.com moderator)
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