Watching television before bedtime is the most influential factor in determing how late children go to sleep.

With a use-of-time approach to investigate what children aged five to 18 years were doing 90 minutes before bedtime, researchers found that screen sedentary time dominated the period before sleep, and was associated with later sleep onset.

Most of these children watched television for at least half an hour in the countdownbefore bed.

Children who went to bed earlier were significantly more likely to be involved in non-screen activities and self care.

Source Pediatrics 2013;131:276.

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