How to cultivate good sleep habits in children?

       Premature “screen exposure” can adversely affect the sleep of infants and toddlers, and plant hidden dangers for the health of children. “Please move the TV out of the bedroom and give the children a good sleeping environment.”  ”The so-called “screen exposure” is simply a history of exposure to electronic devices such as television, cell phones and tablet computers. A sleep study conducted by Professor Jiang Fan investigated the TV viewing behavior of more than 1,000 children aged 4-48 months in eight provinces or autonomous regions in China. The results showed that the proportion of infants and toddlers aged 0-4 years watching TV in China was as high as 70.3%, and that many infants were exposed to the TV environment at less than 6 months of age.  Among those surveyed, 41.8% of the total number of those who watched less than 1 hour of TV per day, 18.2% of those who watched more than 1 hour, and 10.3% of those who watched more than 2 hours. Among them, 31.1% of 4-month-old children watch TV, and 95.2% of 42-48-month-old children.  More and more children are suffering from the hazards of “screen exposure,” “many parents are not aware of the harm it brings to their children’s sleep, and even the use of television before bedtime, as an important part of the bedtime habits of infants and toddlers.” Jiang Fan pointed out that watching TV before bedtime can increase the autonomic excitability of infants and toddlers, while the light from the TV screen can inhibit melatonin secretion and alter circadian rhythms and wakefulness, thus affecting the sleep time and sleep quality of infants and toddlers, such as delayed sleep, prolonged sleep latency, and shortened total sleep time.  Because of this, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued recommended guidelines for children watching TV in 2010 and 2011, based on a large amount of research evidence, suggesting that children under the age of 2 should avoid watching TV, and children over the age of 2 should limit their TV viewing time to 2 hours.  Insomnia is becoming more and more common in younger children who come to hospital sleep disorder clinics and report problems such as “late sleep, difficulty falling asleep, and little sleep”. If you want your child to sleep well, not only do you need to develop good sleep hygiene habits, but you also need to provide a good sleep environment for your child. “First of all, the television set should be moved out of the bedroom, for children, after 6 p.m. to minimize electronic screen exposure, exposure to a variety of electronic media should be less than 2 hours a day.”