Good Health News • Fall • 2013
Good Health News
Fall • 2013 Volume 6 Number 1
Better Sleep? Ditch the Technology
Health in Motion director Natan Gendelman discusses the effect of technology on the quality of sleep
In This Issue Better Sleep? Ditch the Technology ................................Page 1 Staying healthy ................................Page 2 Our Favorite Fall Fruits and Vegetables ................................Page 2 We Can Never Get Enough of Greenery ................................Page 3 Fall/Winter 2013 LIFE Program ................................Page 4
Today a lot of kids have been diagnosed with
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a lot of parents complain that their children do not get enough sleep. They talk of their children sleeping badly during the night, complaining of headaches, and that they lack concentration. Personal experience A very long time ago, my family and I were driving in Pennsylvania. My kid at that time, who is six years old, was playing Nintendo DS. He was over-excited, and was becoming very aggressive. He asked me to help him with the game and I came to sit with him. I started to play the game on NDS and after a few minutes I noticed that I myself started to get angry. I started to have a headache so I just turned the game console off. Reasons for Lack of Concentration If you think about this, besides the radiation and the loud music that comes with playing the game, you have to put a lot of concentration on the small screen on which small figures are moving. So if you do this once in a week, or once every two weeks for a short period of time, nothing will happen. However, if you sit on it for a couple of days for a good few hours, you will not only get a headache but you would not be able to concentrate on other things. Studies have shown that kids’ attention spans at school only last for forty-five minutes, that is why classes in school are scheduled to be only forty-five minutes around the world Connection Between Technology and Sleep However, when kids sit on a smartphone or a computer game for hours without moving, just staring at the screen, it will attribute to the lack of concentration that he has in other areas of life. In addition, when a kid plays violent games, especially in the evening, his brain cannot disconnect from the game for the night. Even when he is asleep, he continues to be in the game. Because of overexcitement, he cannot get enough quality sleep through the night. Technology can induce creativity and it could help with easier communication in our lives. I’m in favor of developing assisting technologies for people who have difficulty talking or expressing, but take care not to let your kids abuse technology and become addicted to it.
Health in Motion Rehabilitation (416) 250-1904 www.healthinmotionrehab.com