To tell you about the Panorama doc on children's sleep

[blubberball]

Posted in the telly addicts bit, but posting here for traffic as I think that it's quite important for parents to know about. Did any one else see the documentary? It's on iPlayer. Is any one else going to make any changes as a result?

I'm going to try. We have as a family, slipped into some bad habits with screens before bed time. I'm going to try on school nights, to switch off all screens one hour before bed time, a bath or shower 30 minutes before bed, and sleepy snacks of porridge or banana.

The children in the study's performance at school vastly improved after promoting the good sleep routines. Memory and problem solving improved by 50 - 60%.

It won't do us any harm to try this.

I think with older children it is not the problem of how bright the screens are. The problem is when using social media such as Facebook or Whatsapp late at night and then having all the social issues and problems on your mind as you're trying to fall asleep.

Reducing screen time in the evening definitely helped my DD, to the extent we don't generally even have the TV on after 5pm. She still has major sleep issues (she's 9 and is under assessment for ASD and ADHD) but it is definitely worse on the evenings we are lax about switching screens off. She gets so 'wired' and her anxiety is much much worse. She is not a neurotypical child though so her responses are more extreme than most - same with caffeine, she can't have anything with chocolate in the afternoon either. But I'm the same with caffeine (I have ASD).

We are actually going to a sleep clinic workshop this week. FINALLY got the referral after years of being fobbed off, writing endless sleep diaries etc. I am looking forward to being lectured about all the sleep hygiene rules that we already have in place.

Sorry that seems to have descended into an irrelevant rant!

Everyone's different anyway - my 7yo DS is SOOO clearly autistic (he's under assessment too but it's way more obvious than DD IYSWIM) and yet he sleeps like a baby. That said, I don't think too much screen time is good for anyone, especially at night.

I limit screen time generally but what I can't work out is how to stop it before bed for my two year old when I also have a baby to get to bed. I need 20 mins upstairs in quiet to get the baby to sleep and if he's not watching tv then he comes to find me. If I shut the stair gate then he stands at it and shouts for me. He sleeps ok though so I guess I shouldn't worry

I recorded it and got the dc to watch it. I have one who sleeps well, but the other needs good sleep management. What works for her is a slow wind down and waking early to allow herself more time to wake up. She has one of those gradual light alarm clocks. And vitamin D3. I agree that for teens it is the notifications and pings late into the night that is the issue.

Scarlett
Nightshift is found in Settings > Display & Brightness. Schedule it for the times you want. You need a fairly new iOS though.

Welsh
I was mostly thinking of adults, but Nightshift and using coloured light bulbs etc can be of use to lots of people, especially teenagers who perhaps don't finish homework until 10pm some nights.

^ oh, and using a red lightbulb in the nursery at night time if you need to nappy change / sooth.

For those with android/windows, downloadable programmes/applications such as f.lux do a similar thing to nightshift. Toning the blue out with a warmer hue really does seem to make a difference for me at least (dd is only 11 weeks so too young to have screentime yet!)

I just wish I could change the hue on my kindle paperwhite.

welshmoth you misunderstand, the nightshift feature isn't for my DC it's for me mumsnetting

Oh! I'll get my coat