Teens send an average of 34 texts a night after supposedly going to bed, in some cases up to four hours after hitting the sack, according to researchers from JFK Medical Center in N.J.
Evidence has been mounting that teens prefer texting to actual contact with family members.
Studies from Nielsen and Kaiser show teens consider the loss of a cell phone more dire than the loss of an internal organ.
New research finds half of the kids kept awake by electronic media suffered from a whole host of mood and cognitive problems, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, depression, and learning difficulties.
"Media opportunities like texting and games are worse than TV because they are interactive,” says Dr. Peter Polos, lead researcher and a specialist in sleep medicine at the Sleep Disorder Center at JFK Medical Center. “Removing these distractions would maximize children’s sleep time. Bedtime is bedtime and lights out.”
Polos said the study findings, compiled from questionnaires completed by students ages 8 to 22 years old, revealed gender differences.
Boys were more likely to surf the Internet and play online games after going to bed, whereas girls were more inclined to text message and use cell phones.
"Get a locked strongbox, and put all phones and blackberries there until morning,” says Mary A. Carskadon, director of chronobiology/sleep research at Bradley Hospital in East Providence, and professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown Medical School in Providence, who has researched insufficient sleep in adolescents.
“It’s clear if you have a phone in bed with you and it’s turned on it’s going to interfere with your performance in school, and teens feel like they always need to be connected to their friends. Young people need limits set, because their brains are still developing, and they need their parents to take action.”, Carskadon says.
Douglas Gentile, a child psychologist and associate professor at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, who studies the effects of media on children, says texting, Facebook and video games are not inherently bad. Nor are they inherently better or worse than watching TV, although they do pose different risks, such as cyberbullying.
Research has shown the more time kids spend in front of screens - whether it's TV or instant-messaging - the worse their school performance. "That doesn't mean it's true for every kid, but it makes sense, that for every hour a kid is playing video games, it's an hour that they're not doing homework or reading or exploring or creating," he said.
On a related note, Rhode Island is the 19th state plus the District of Columbia to prohibit texting while driving, as concern grows nationally about the issue of distracted driving. Nine of those states prohibit texting only by novice drivers or in limited circumstances. Six states and D.C. go even further, by prohibiting the use of handheld cell phones while driving.
The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project says adults and teenagers are equally likely to have texted while driving. Adults are more likely to have chatted on their phones while driving.
The recent study found 47% of adults who text reported having sent or read texts while behind the wheel.
In a 2009 Pew study, 34% of 16 and 17-year-olds who sent texts said that they had done so driving.
In Rhode Island, sending, reading or writing a text message, such as an e-mail or instant message, with any kind of data-transmission device while operating a moving motor vehicle would be punishable at the Traffic Tribunal by a fine of $85 on first offense, $100 on second offense and $125 for a third or subsequent offense.
Additional Resources:
Lights Out, Phones on: Many Teens Text All Night
Are Texting And Facebook Worse For Teens Than TV
Texting While Driving Study Shows Teens Are Not The Worst Culprits
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