In a literature review in the subject of digital media use and sleep disturbances in children, conducted by the Tnuda Center, a significant association was found between digital media use around lights out time and at night and sleep disturbances.  The night time use mainly causes postponement of sleep onset, but also impairment of sleep quality and daytime tiredness. In addition, several mechanisms were suggested (biological and psycho-social) relating to the way that digital media use might affect sleep indices.

Therefore, the Tnuda Center has formulated draft recommendations whose goal is to increase awareness of the subject of digital media use and possible sleep disturbances amongst parents, adolescents and children and teachers, and to present possible ways to reduce night time use.

The recommendations below are preliminary and constitute a basis for discussion amongst professional people in the health, education and technology field.

Several mechanisms (biological and psycho-social) have been suggested to explain how digital media use might impair sleep duration and quality

The growing use of digital media in the general public, and especially in children, is expressed in a wide variety of devices and usage options (like browsing the internet, content consumption, messaging, social network browsing, listening to music, accessing email and games).

Sleep has a significant effect on health. Many studies have investigated the effect of shorter than desirable sleep duration and other sleep disturbances on morbidity and mortality risk. Nevertheless, it should be noted that reverse causality may exist, whereby medical conditions and various behaviors raise the likelihood of sleep disturbances rather than resulting from sleep disturbances

This chapter presents a variety of factors related to sleep disturbances including impaired biological processes, environmental and psycho-social and lifestyle factors

Sleep is a cyclic daily event essential for regulating and stabilizing metabolic, physiological, hormonal, emotional and intellectual processes. According to the Israeli Pediatric Association and the Israel Sleep Research Society, recommended number of hours sleep per age are as follows: 0-3 months: 14-17 hours, 4-11 months: 12-15 hours, 1-2 years: 11-14 hours, 3-5 years: 10-13 hours, 6-13 years: 9-12 hours, 14-17 years: 8-10 hours.

Good quality, continuous and sufficient sleep is important for daily functioning and for physiological and cognitive health. Amongst children and adolescents – who are at a stage in life when they are constantly growing and developing – sleep is especially essential.

Chapter list:

• Introduction
• Sleep Disturbances and Sleep Pattern Changes in Children & Adolescents
• Risk Factors for Sleep Disturbances in Children & Adolescents
• Health effects of Sleep Disturbances in Children & Adolescents
• The Extent of Digital Media Use in General and after lights out
• The Effect of Digital Media Use on Sleep
• Possible Mechanisms for the association between Digital Media & Sleep Disturbances
• Recommendations