Study: Televisions in children's bedrooms impair their sleep

A study shows that children who have a television in their bedroom have their sleep impaired.

Research has shown children who have a television in their bedrooms have later bedtimes and shorter sleep duration. A new study shows similar sleep problems in children who have a “small screen,” such as a smartphone in their room.

The study, “Sleep Duration,Restfulness, and Screens in the Sleep Environment,” published in the February 2015 Pediatrics (published online Jan. 5), surveyed 2,048 fourth- and seventh-graders about bedtimes, wake times, feelings of sleepiness and the presence of televisions, smartphones and other small screens in their bedrooms. Children who slept near a small screen and children with a television in their bedroom had shorter weekday sleep durations. Children who slept near a small screen were more likely to report perceived insufficient sleep. TV or DVD viewing and video or computer game playing were also associated with shorter weekday sleep duration and sleepiness. Children with screens in their sleep environment and more screen time also had later bedtimes.

Study authors conclude the findings caution against children’s unfettered access to screen-based media in their bedrooms.
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Smoking marijuana can lead to poor sleep quality, study claims

According to a study, smoking marijuana can lead to impaired sleep and poor sleep quality.

Smoking pot can lead to poor sleep quality, a new research shows.

Researchers found that marijuana abuse was linked to increased chances of difficulty in falling asleep, struggling to maintain sleep, experiencing non-restorative sleep and feeling daytime sleepiness.

The effect was strongly seen in people who began smoking weed before the age of 15. They were nearly twice more likely to have severe problems falling asleep, experiencing non-restorative sleep and feeling overly sleepy during the day.

"Current and past marijuana users are more likely to experience sleep problems," said lead author Jilesh Chheda, research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "The most surprising finding was that there was a strong relationship with age of first use, no matter how often people were currently using marijuana. People who started using early were more likely to have sleep problems as an adult," he said in a news release.

The study involved adults ranging in age from 20-59 years who responded to the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). A history of drug use was reported by 1,811 participants. Cannabis use was assessed as any history of use, age at first use and number of times used in the past month. Sleep-related problems were considered severe if they occurred at least 15 days per month.

The findings show that weed abuse in the early years of adolescence might pose a higher risk for subsequent insomnia symptoms.

"Marijuana use is common, with about half of adults having reported using it at some point in their life," said Chheda. "As it becomes legal in many states, it will be important to understand the impact of marijuana use on public health, as its impact on sleep in the 'real world' is not well known."

The research abstract was published in the journal 'Sleep' and will be presented Wednesday, June 4, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at SLEEP 2014, the 28th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.

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Aging and impaired sleep

A study shows that the way that aging impairs a person's sleep may be reversible.

Sleep is essential for human health. But with increasing age, many people experience a decline in sleep quality, which in turn reduces their quality of life. In a new study publishing April 1 in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology, Scientists at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biology of Ageing in Cologne have investigated the mechanisms by which ageing impairs sleep in the fruit fly. Their findings suggest that age-related sleep decline can be prevented and might even be reversible.

To uncover basic age-related sleep mechanisms, the Max Planck scientists studied the fruit flyDrosophila melanogaster, a classical model organism in ageing research. "Drosophila's sleep has many features in common with that of humans, including the decline in quality," says Luke Tain of the MPI for Biology of Ageing. "Like humans, flies sleep at night and are active during the day. We can observe when and how long flies sleep. We can also determine their sleep quality by measuring how often they wake. This allows us to study the effects of specific substances or other sleep-influencing factors such as age and genetic disposition."

Ageing researchers Athanasios Metaxakis, Luke Tain, and Sebastian Grönke, in the department of MPI Director Linda Partridge, discovered that a reduced activity in the IIS signalling pathway leads to improved sleep quality at night and higher activity levels at day. A signalling pathway is a biological method of transferring information, and via those pathways, the cell can respond to external conditions like the state of food supply. "In our study, we described the role of the IIS pathway in regulating sleep and activity through the neurotransmitters octopamine and dopamine," explains Tain. "What makes this pathway so interesting to us is the fact that it is evolutionarily conserved. This means that its components and functions are similar in diverse species from simple organisms like fruit flies to mice and even humans. Furthermore, we were able to improve sleep quality by administering therapeutic agents."

Moreover, the scientists found out that day activity and night sleep are regulated by two distinct signalling pathways, night sleep being mediated through TOR and dopaminergic signalling. Surprisingly, if TOR's activity is acutely inhibited by treatment with the therapeutic agent Rapamycin, sleep quality improves even in old flies, suggesting that age-related sleep decline is not only preventable, but also reversible.

The scientists will follow up on their findings. Luke Tain: "Given the high evolutionarily conservation of IIS and TOR function, our results implicate potential therapeutic targets to improve sleep quality in humans. This would be our longer-term goal. The next step however, is to find out whether these mechanisms also work in higher animals like mice."

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