Dave Batt - Kids Phones at Night

The monsters keeping our children awake at night aren’t the stuff of fairy tales — they’re made of pixels and social media likes. A comprehensive study is pulling back the curtain on a troubling trend: nighttime phone use turning bedtime into a battleground for sleep and mental health.  The research, conducted in Australia, reveals a troubling connection between late-night texting, cyberbullying, and psychological distress among kids as young as seven years-old.Scientists say the childhood rite of passage of staying up past bedtime has taken a dark turn in the digital age.  The study, published in the journal Adolescents, analyzed data from over 53,000 Australian children between the ages of seven and 19. For many kids, “lights out” is just the beginning of their nightly online activities — and the consequences are more serious than just next-day drowsiness.  One of the most striking discoveries was that about a third of primary school children (ages 7-11) and more than 60% of secondary school students (ages 12-19) reported using their phones at night at least once a week. This nighttime phone use was associated with shorter sleep duration and increased psychological distress across all age groups.  But it’s not just about losing sleep. The study also found that children who experienced cyberbullying were more likely to use their phones at night and report sleep issues and psychological distress. Approximately 15% of the children surveyed had experienced cyberbullying in the past school term, with rates peaking in early adolescence. Dave is an expert in social media and mental health. He's with PredictView, a cutting-edge health technology company dedicated to improving mental wellness with its AI-based solutions