Media influences the sleep of children and teens, as per a study led by Dimitri A Christakis, MD, MPH and Michelle M Garrison, PhD of Seattle Children’s Research Institute. The researcher, Dimitri A Christakis, had done a study with 224 college students in the US universities.

The experiment included the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) were provided with a questionnaire, Mr. Christakis related the problematic internet usage and the level of depression among the students.

The study, led by Garrison, was on 600 children belonging to the age group of 3 to 5. The results of the study revealed that the children suffered from sleeplessness or could not have proper sleep because of watching television, violent media content in excess.

Various types of sleeping problems revealed by the parents of the children were trouble falling asleep, nightmares, waking during the night, trouble with morning alertness and daytime sleepiness or lethargic behavior. Around 4% of the students were found moderately addicted to internet usage and 6 to 10 5 students were all over affected with the addiction.

“Given the Internet is woven into the fabric of the lives of this generation of children, concerns about the potential for addiction are warranted and today’s college students are clearly at risk, given the considerable exposure that they have to the Internet”, said Christakis