EMBARGO: MONDAY, JUNE 7, 2004, 3:00 PM CENTRAL TIME 

NEW STUDY LINKS EXTENSIVE TELEVISION VIEWING IN ADOLESCENCE TO SLEEP PROBLEMS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD

In a paper published in this month’s issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, researchers present findings that point to a link between extensive television viewing and the development of sleep problems by early adulthood. This is the first longitudinal study on the long-term association between sleep problems and television viewing.

The study, conducted by researchers at the New York State Psychiatric Institute at the Columbia University Medical Center and the Mount Sinai Medical Center, analyzed data from a pool of 759 families with whom follow-up interviews of mothers and randomly selected children were conducted. The children (and their mothers, separately) were interviewed at age 14, 16 and 22 years.

Television viewing was put into three categories: (1) less than 1 hour per day, (2) 1 to 3 hours per day and (3) 3 or more hours per day. If parents’ answers to questions regarding their children’s viewing habits differed from that of the children, the higher of the two answers was used.

According to Dr. Jeffrey Johnson of the Psychiatric Institute and his colleagues “Difficulty falling asleep and nighttime awakening were significantly more prevalent at mean age 14 years than at mean age 16 and 22 years.” The amount of time kids spent watching television at age 14 was significantly associated with frequent awakening during the night, any frequent sleep problem and two or more sleep problems at age 16 or 22. These associations remained significant after controlling for age, sex, low parental educational level and income, and parental psychiatric symptoms and a host of other variables including “the corresponding sleep problem at mean age 14 years.”

“Youth who reduced their television viewing time from 1 hour or more per day at mean age 14 years to less than 1 hour per day at mean age 16 years were significantly less likely than those who did not reduce their television viewing to have 2 or more frequent sleep problems at mean age 16 or 22 years,” the authors wrote.

The results may have important public health implications given that more than 40 million Americans have a chronic sleep disorder, which is associated with depression, impaired memory as well as psychomotor and metabolic functioning. It has also been noted that sleep deprivation accounts for a large proportion of motor vehicle accidents.

These new findings help bolster already existing recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics that children’s television viewing be restricted to no more than 1 to 2 hours per day.

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