Too much screen time can sabotage preschoolers’ sleep, potentially turning them into terrors around the house, a new study warns.
Bad sleep can exacerbate children’s struggles with poor attention, hyperactivity and moodiness, researchers reported Dec. 12 in the journal Early Child Development and Care.
Worse, kids can wind up in a downward spiral, with screen time and poor sleep feeding off each other.
“Our results suggest the presence of a positive feedback loop, wherein increased screen time and sleep disturbances exacerbate each other through cyclic reinforcement, heightening the risk of hyperactive attention problems, anxiety and depression,” said researcher Dr. Bowen Xiao, an expert in children’s socio-emotional functioning and developmental psychopathology with Carleton University in Canada.
