‘The Electric Room’ Keeping Kids Awake
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Did you ever stay up late when you were a teenager, long after your parents thought you were asleep? The temptations 20 or 30 years ago were a good book or a phone but teens today have more options to choose from and they are not helping the cause.
Dr. Gary Emmett, Professor of Pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University, says this is a growing problem and he talks about the phenomena he calls, “The electric room.”
“Everyone has a tv, an iPod, a radio, or an iPhone in their room. What’s happening is that teenagers who need more sleep than adults, between eight and nine hours a day, are averaging six-and-a-half hours.”
Dr. Emmett says that can affect schoolwork, concentration, mood and ultimately their immune system:
“I can only give the advice I gave my own kids. They weren’t allowed to have radios or televisions on after their bedtime and we enforced it. If they had cell phones, the cell phones were turned off after they went to sleep.”