Beth Spanberger is the first to admit she is never far from her phone.

“For me it’s justly mostly checking emails, social media, Facebook, that sort of thing,” says Spanberger.

But when it comes to her daughter, Beth plans to set limits.

“Being on your iPhone or iPad before bed can disrupt your own sleep, so I can imagine the same would hold true for young ones,” says Spanberger.

A generation of children is growing up with smart devices, hand-held ones that are always accessible and portable. And now, experts find these ‘small screens’ may be more harmful to a child’s sleep than excessive television exposure.

“If you have the bright light from daytime or a light that’s really up close, then that’s how it can affect it,” says Dr. Jose Colon, who is a sleep specialist with Lee Memorial Health System.

In addition to the distractibility factor, experts believe hand-held devices might impact melatonin.

“Melatonin is a sleep promoting hormone that our body makes. All day long our light that is entering our eyes is suppressing that melatonin. Now night comes, you pull the switch from the suppression; you get this release of melatonin. If you are texting or Facebooking, surfing the web - it is going to affect the melatonin that your body is trying to release,” says Dr. Colon.

The Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics reports kids are losing on average 20 minutes of downtime per week night for those who take small screens to bed.

“Generally I would just think keeping things in moderation,” says Spanberger.

Given the data, when the time comes for her daughter, Beth is likely to switch the lights off and power down.


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Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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