Children sleep for seven minutes less for every hour of watching TV

For every hour of television a child watches each day, they get seven fewer minutes sleep. U.S. researchers found boys are particularly likely to miss out on sleep because of the presence of a television in their bedroom.

Researchers at MassGeneral Hospital for Children and the Harvard School of Public Health followed more than 1,800 children from the age of six months to eight years, The Daily Mail reports.

They found that those who had a television in their bedroom got less sleep than those who didn’t.

They also discovered that children from ethnic minorities were much more likely to sleep in a room with a television. And, among these children, the presence of a television reduced sleep duration by about half an hour a day.

The research was the first to study the effects of having a bedroom television over a long time period.

They say reduced sleep duration can have negative effects on both mental and physical health.

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