Kids losing sleep and at risk of poor mental health due to smartphone addiction, expert warns
Young people who give up using smartphones can have up to an extra hour of sleep a night, an expert has said, amid growing concern about devices in school leading to outbreaks of bullying and impacts on their physical and mental wellbeing.
Emma Sullivan, an academic at the University of York, has been researching the impact of smartphones on teenagers amid growing concern about mobile technology and brain development.
Some 91 per cent of children own a mobile phone by the age of 11, according to Ofcom research.
Ms Sullivan’s research was featured in recent Channel 4 documentary Swiped: The School that Banned Smartphones which saw a group of 12-year-olds give up their smartphones while the impact on their sleep and physical and mental wellbeing was monitored.
She told the Yorkshire Post: “Twelve is a really important developmental age, there’s lots going on in the brain.
“There’s lots of changes too in their social development.
“One study recently found that teenagers are more sensitive to ‘likes’ on social media in that it can actually change the dopamine levels in their brain, and so they find them more immediately rewarding.
“You don’t see the same brain changes in adults, which suggest teens are more predisposed to become addicted. They are more influenced by their peers too.”
The impact phones are having on sleep in this age group is clear, Ms Sullivan said. She said: “The prefrontal cortex, the front region of the brain, is really important for making rational decisions and avoiding risk taking behaviours. Sleep is really important for restoring the cortex, and when we don’t get sleep the region is impaired.
“Being on the phone and social media late at night increases cognitive arousal levels. Because of that, your brain is really switched on and it makes it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep.
“And obviously the time spent on the phone by teenagers is time spent not sleeping.”
It comes as a health expert said a generation of young people will be lost to poor mental health if safeguards on digital technology are not brought forward, a top paediatrician has warned.
Baroness Hilary Cass said the impact of smart devices on children’s sleep, attention span, and education is “not just a moral problem but an economic timebomb”.
The independent crossbencher called for teachers to receive dedicated training on the issue, in addition to education for parents, as peers debated the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
Lady Cass argued it’s not just “deliberate harm”, such as cyber bullying, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation and grooming that children are at risk of.
“That’s just the tip of the iceberg, there are multiple other risks associated with digital technology that have been discussed in this House, including adverse effects of learning, attention, sleep, educational attainment and mental health.
“And addictive apps are particularly a problem, especially for boys,” she said.
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