Too Much TV Watching Disrupts Sleep

New research has suggested that teenagers who watch toomuch television are putting themselves at risk for sleep problemslater in life. The study included interviews with 759 mothers andtheir teen children when they reached an average age of 14, 16,and 22 years of age. As reported in the Archives of Pediatrics andAdolescent Medicine (June 2004), the researchers found that,among 14-year-olds who had little trouble getting a good night'ssleep, those who watched at least 3 hours of television daily were >2times as likely to have trouble falling asleep and frequent nighttimewaking at age 16 or 22.

Furthermore, adolescents who reduced their television time from&#8805;1 hour per day at age 14 to <1 hour per day at age 16 were lesslikely to experience at least 2 sleep consequences later in life,compared with teens who did not change their television habits. Asfor a reason why television may disturb sleep, the researcherssaid that studies suggested that watching late-night televisionmay put individuals in a state of "heightened alertness and physiologicalarousal," stopping them from easily falling asleep.