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Texting at night 'disrupts children's sleep and memory'

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8 June 2012 Last updated at 12:16 GMT By Judith Burns Education reporter BBC News Staring at a small bright screen can disrupt sleep more than watching television research suggests

Parents should worry less about cyberbullying and more about sleep and memory disruption when children use technology at night, an expert warns.

Neuroscientist Dr Paul Howard-Jones will tell Bristol Festival of Education on Monday that parents should limit their children's use of technology.

Dr Howard-Jones will cite evidence that night-time texting disrupts sleep more than watching television.

He wants adults to apply their offline parenting skills to the digital world.

Dr Howard-Jones will say that "most parents would discourage their children from having a midnight chat to friends on the doorstep, but having access to a mobile phone under the duvet can also be a bad idea."

He will say there is evidence that staring at a small bright screen under the covers can disrupt the secretion of the hormone melatonin which regulates our sleep cycle, more strongly than watching television.

He will add that another study suggests that teenagers who text after lights out are four times more likely to experience daytime drowsiness and yet more studies have linked playing video games even early in the evening with loss of sleep.

Dr Howard-Jones, of Bristol University, specialises in neuroscience and education and in particular on the effects of computer games and digital technology on the brain. He is also himself the father of five school-aged children.

Source: BBC

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