You know to avoid junk food, but what about junk sleep?
Categories: Teens & Tweens, Development, Media, Education, Gadgets & Tech, That's Entertainment
In a poll of 1,000 British teenagers, an new, unhealthy new trend came to light: junk sleep. The kids were so distracted by the electronic gadgetry in their rooms that they stayed up late (30% slept 4-7 hours a night) and frequently fell asleep with the computer or music left on, which affected the quality of their rest.
"This is an incredibly worrying trend," according to Dr. Chris Idzikowski of the Edinburgh Sleep Center. "What we are seeing is the emergence of Junk Sleep - that is sleep that is of neither the length nor quality that it should be in order to feed the brain with the rest it needs to perform properly at school."
Nearly every teen in the study had a music system, television, or phone in their bedroom. Two thirds of the kids had all three.
The researchers predict junk sleep could rival the consumption of junk food as a major lifestyle issue for parents of teenagers.
The thought of programs being created to get kids to turn their electronics off long enough to get a good night's sleep like the ones to get them to eat better (5 a day!) annoys me. I might be mean and old fashioned, but I don't see a reason for a kid to have their own TV in their room until they're the one paying the rent. Make bedrooms for beds, TV rooms for television. Problem solved.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DaMoKi Bob 9-04-2007 @ 7:20AM
What is amazing is the lack of response to this story. I am pretty sure American kids in the age range mentioned in the survey would prove to have the same habits. Habits are funny things: they tend to stick with you after you grow up. The importance of this trend should not be under-rated because, though only one in a line of poor habits parents seem to be allowing to manifest in their children, it as lingering side effects deleterious to the performance of intellectual and physical endeavors. I believe the reason parents fail to acknowledge the level of threat is ignorance of the effect; of course there are some who are challenged around their synapses and will never “get it”.
A simple answer is to deny the toys until the kids attend to their student responsibilities. Quit trying to be your kid’s friend, and concentrate on being a parent. Don’t fill their room with the stuff distractions are made of, and don’t be afraid to set a rule like, each night cell phones are turned off and charged overnight; failure to leave it in the charger, turned off, results in the loss of the phone the next day for the first offense, a week for the second, and at your discretion a month or indefinitely… long enough for them to get the idea and demonstrate to your satisfaction their maturity and willingness toward cooperative participation with the family at an appropriate level.
When the kids don’t see the consequences of their action or inaction, it is up to their parent to point it out in a way a lesson can be learned. Otherwise, they won’t, and the poor habits will continue.
I would love to hear how others address these issues.
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