Little sleep due to screen use affects children’s learning – 02/11/2023 – Equilibrium

Maintaining students’ concentration in Portuguese classes has been a challenge for Vanessa Soares, a teacher in the São Paulo state network for 12 years. The problem is not necessarily lack of interest in the subject. It can’t compete with drowsiness and cell phone use.

“We see many students who are very sleepy, and when we ask, they went to sleep at two in the morning playing on the internet, using their cell phones. Parents have difficulty controlling it”, he reports.

Soares teaches children and teenagers aged 11 to 14 in the city of Quatá, in the interior of São Paulo. She noticed, in recent years, a significant deterioration in the students’ ability to concentrate, who are increasingly drowsy in the classroom.

The difficulty already existed before the pandemic, but it got worse after the isolation period. A Canadian study, published in Jama Pediatrics in November 2022, identified that screen time for young people up to 18 years old increased by an average of 52% during the pandemic.

“During the isolation period, some young people spent 14 to 16 hours a day using screens”, points out pediatrician Gustavo Moreira, a specialist at the Sleep Institute. “Studies show that three hours a day already has a negative effect.”

The consequences of excessive use of cell phones, tablets and computers are still being studied. Ophthalmologists believe, for example, that the habit is linked to the increase in the number of cases of myopia in young people.

The relationship between screen brightness and difficulty sleeping, however, is easily explained by science.

Letícia Soster, responsible for the Infant Sleep laboratory at the Instituto da Criança e do Jovens do Hospital das Clínicas at USP and member of the ABS (Brazilian Sleep Association), points out that the human body has a series of mechanisms to determine the sleep cycle, including behavioral factors and energy expenditure.

However, an important factor for the body to understand that it is time to sleep is the absence of light, which is difficult to achieve when you have constant contact with cell phones, tablets and computers.

“Our eye does not understand the difference between sunlight and screen light”, points out Soster. “The child who uses screens at the end of the day tends to push the sleep onset time.”

That is why, during the school period, many find it difficult to adapt to the timetable and the effects are felt in the classroom.

“Sleep deprivation has several neurological effects”, says pediatrician Gustavo Moreira, a specialist in sleep medicine. For children and teenagers, sleeping less than nine hours a day can cause mood swings, difficulty remembering and concentrating.

Especially in adolescence, physiological and social factors make it difficult for this goal to be achieved. Moreira points out that, while children tend to be more morning, adolescents are evening: they feel sleepy later at night and have more difficulty waking up early.

“School time, which starts at 7 am, is too early for teenagers”, reinforces Soster. According to the child neurologist, experiences in other countries show that delaying the start of classes in the morning can help students improve performance.

Sleep deprivation associated with excessive use of screens causes learning difficulties and decreases students’ focus in the classroom. In addition, professors and specialists have observed immediacy and anxious behavior.

Ana Paula Aoletta, a Portuguese language teacher in São Caetano do Sul, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, says that in response to students’ behavior, teachers need to make classes “very” dynamic, because “any activity or explanation that goes on for a while , I notice that they start to disperse”.

Aoletta has been a teacher for 19 years and has taught children and adolescents from the 6th to the 9th grade of elementary school in municipal schools in the ABC Paulista region. The professional reports that, while students have slower reasoning and impaired attention, they also show a certain impatience and difficulty in waiting for answers.

Teacher Vanessa Soares agrees. “They want it all too fast.”

How to control sleep time

Experts point out that parents need to set boundaries at home to ensure their children have a good sleep routine. “For teenagers, ten o’clock at night is a good time to sleep. For younger children, nine o’clock,” says Moreira.

Soster reinforces that it is important to also maintain similar schedules on the weekend. “Delay bedtime by one to two hours, at most.”

To ensure that children respect these times, an important element is to reduce the use of electronic devices, activities and stimulating foods in the evening. From seven o’clock, it is recommended to reduce screen time, in addition to turning off cell phones about an hour before going to bed.

“The family should seek to include children in activities without screens,” suggests Moreira. “The older ones can help prepare dinner or set the table, for example.”