The Impact of Television, Electronic Games, and Social Technology Use on Sleep and Health in Adolescents with an Evening Circadian Preference

Videoconferencing During the COVID-19 Pandemic is Associated with Sleep Disruption in Young Adults

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a shift to working and learning from home and a concomitant rise in the use of virtual communication technology, such as videoconferencing. The current study prospectively examined the association between videoconferencing and sleep in a sample of young adults attending a university during the pandemic. The effects of videoconferencing on health and wellness outcomes and academic performance were also evaluated.

Patients and Methods

Participants completed the core Consensus Sleep Diary and reported engagement in videoconferencing, the use of electronic devices, and physical activity daily for 8 consecutive days. They also completed baseline measures of sleep, communication technology use, physical activity, and mental distress, as well as released their end-of-term GPA. Results were evaluated via multilevel modeling and path analysis.

Results

Participants with a heavier videocall volume lost 17 m of sleep and suffered nearly a 1% reduction in sleep efficiency for each additional hour of videoconferencing compared to those with a lower call volume. They also tended to spend more time awake during the night, have earlier sleep midpoints, and report worse sleep, although those trends did not reach statistical significance. For everyone, including individuals with lower videocall volume, earlier sleep midpoints, lower sleep quality, somewhat shorter sleep, and higher fatigue were reported on days with a relatively high videocall load compared to days with a low videocall load. Increased academic engagement with videoconferencing predicted lower academic performance and higher psychological distress: Both relationships were mediated by sleep. Use of videoconferencing for personal reasons, however, was directly associated with a reduction in distress.

Conclusion

Videoconferencing is an important determinant of sleep and may impact health and wellness as well as academic outcomes in young adults. The effects of virtual communication on sleep and human behavior warrant further study in this and other populations.

The Impact of Social Media Use on Sleep and Mental Health in Youth: a Scoping Review

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Social media use (SMU) and other internet-based technologies are ubiquitous in today's interconnected society, with young people being among the commonest users. Previous literature tends to support that SMU is associated with poor sleep and mental health issues in youth, despite some conflicting findings. In this scoping review, we summarized relevant studies published within the past 3 years, highlighted the impacts of SMU on sleep and mental health in youth, while also examined the possible underlying mechanisms involved. Future direction and intervention on rational use of SMU was discussed.

RECENT FINDINGS

Both cross-sectional and longitudinal cohort studies demonstrated the negative impacts of SMU on sleep and mental health, with preliminary evidence indicating potential benefits especially during the COVID period at which social restriction was common. However, the limited longitudinal research has hindered the establishment of directionality and causality in the association among SMU, sleep, and mental health. Recent studies have made advances with a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of SMU on sleep and mental health in youth, which is of public health importance and will contribute to improving sleep and mental health outcomes while promoting rational and beneficial SMU. Future research should include the implementation of cohort studies with representative samples to investigate the directionality and causality of the complex relationships among SMU, sleep, and mental health; the use of validated questionnaires and objective measurements; and the design of randomized controlled interventional trials to reduce overall and problematic SMU that will ultimately enhance sleep and mental health outcomes in youth.

Associations Between Multidimensional Sleep Health Parameters and Adolescents' Self-reported Light Exposure in the Free-living Environment

The objective of this study was to characterize the associations between light exposure in the free-living environment and multiple dimensions of sleep health of typically developing adolescents. Fifty-six (29 girls, 27 boys) typically developing adolescents (mean age = 13.59, SD = 0.89, range = 12-17 years) participated. For six consecutive nights, sleep was assessed in the home environment using actigraphy. During the same period, participants were asked to fill out a daily sleep log and a daily light exposure log, and to complete questionnaires regarding their alertness and subjective sleep satisfaction. Longer self-reported exposure to daylight in the morning was associated with longer objectively measured sleep duration. Longer self-reported exposures to electronic devices in the evening were associated with later objectively measured sleep onset and offset times, shorter sleep duration, and greater day-to-day sleep variability. Longer morning exposure to outdoor light was associated with a longer sleep duration. Self-reported light exposure was not associated with sleep satisfaction, alertness/sleepiness, or sleep efficiency. Among the covariates, circadian preference accounted for the highest percentage of variance. Adolescents' sleep health is associated with the self-reported duration of exposure to daylight in the morning and to electronic devices in the evening.

Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on increasing the risks of children's addiction to electronic games from a social work perspective

Children are among the social groups most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because they have found themselves forced to stay at home, far from their schoolmates, their friends, and far from all the activities they used to do before the pandemic. so, it was their only refuge for recreation during their stay in Home is staying in front of the screens of tablets, smartphones, and computers to play electronic games for long hours, and there is no doubt that the sudden shift in the lifestyle of children during the Covid-19 pandemic had serious consequences and risks threatening their stability at all levels. In light of that, the current study aimed to determine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on increasing the social, psychological, behavioral, and health risks of children's addiction to electronic games from a social work perspective. This study falls under the type of descriptive-analytical studies that are based on describing the reality of the problem under study. The study sample included 289 children in the age group 6-17 years in the first grade to the twelfth grade at school. The researcher designed a questionnaire that reflects the four risks facing children to assess these risks. The results showed is that the value of all impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the increasing risks of children's addiction to electronic games came to a total weight of (27907), weighted relative weight of (80.47%). This indication is High, indicating that the level of impact is High for the Covid-19 pandemic on the increase in all types of risks of children's addiction to electronic games. It ranked first " Behavioral Risks " at 91.15%, It is followed by the ranked second "Social risks " at 85.5%, Then came third place " Psychological Risks" at 80.91%, and in finally in fourth place " Health Risks" at 64.28%, which necessitates the need to take a set of serious measures by educating parents to monitor the content of electronic games that their children play, especially violent games, in addition to, reduce the number of hours the child spends practicing these games, and to encourage parents to form a bridge of communication and constructive dialogue between them and their children, and that parents put controls and restrictions on their children's practice of electronic games to confront abnormal behavioral, psychological and social patterns such as aggression, violence, deception, lying, imitation, vigilance, physical stress, poor eyesight, distance from practicing religious rituals, academic delay, introversion, depression, intolerance, selfishness, sadness, isolation from society, social withdrawal and lack of forming social relationships and lack of communication with others. The researcher took care that the results of the current study are very accurate and representative of the reality of the research problem, in light of the researcher's emphasis on the commitment to observe ethical rules to ensure the confidentiality of data. finally, the current study will greatly benefit researchers interested in the field of childhood and its problems and they will rely on its results and recommendations in how to protect children from the dangers of electronic game addiction in light of the Covid-19 crisis in particular.