Blame smartphones for your kids' daytime sleepiness

A new study has found that if your children are exhausted and sleepy during the daytime, it's probably due to use of smartphones and social media.

Dr. Ofra Flint-Brettler at the University of Haifa, who led the study of youngsters said that there was no doubt that these activities disrupted their sleep patterns. They went to bed too late because they stayed awake to watch TV, didn't sleep enough and got tired quickly.

Flint-Brettler found for the first time that a workshop for parents could significantly improve the situation. Attending the short workshop resulted in their supervising sleep habits, and the youngsters slept more than half an hour longer than before. Therefore, she advised parents to intervene.

Flint-Brettler examined children aged 10 to 12 on the basis of self-reporting questionnaires and objective studies of their sleep habits using an actigraph (a device that checks sleep patterns).

At this age, children should get eight to nine hours of sleep per night, and they should go to bed before 9 p.m. But in fact, many went to sleep after 11 p.m. and reported a poorer mood than children who went to bed earlier.

When youngsters have a TV in their bedroom, they sleep much less than those without a personal set. Parents were found to know little about their children's sleep habits.