Is Your Kid Having Trouble Sleeping? Turn off the Computer!

Guess why your kid can’t sleep at night. That cell phone or computer your child is attached to just might be shutting down his or her melatonin. And that down shift in melatonin may be causing insomnia. . . .

Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland in the dark, and it is necessary for sleep. After spending several nights following a stable sleep schedule, on the seventh night, kids were moved to a brightly lit environment for one hour before returning to a dimly lit environment at bedtime.

The effect of the one hour of bright light before bedtime was an 88% suppression of melatonin. Fifty minutes later, melatonin was still suppressed.

This study suggests that exposure to bright light sources like cell phone and computer screens around bedtime could be causing sleep problems in children and teenagers.

SLEEP 2016: 30th Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies: Abstract 0130. Presented June 12, 2016.

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For much more on preventing and treating insomnia, see our book, The Family Naturopathic Encyclopedia.