Introduction: Screen addiction has become a common problem in today's children. Especially in pandemic period, children's not going to school for a long time, online education and parents working from home caused disruptions in sleep rhythms and an increase in screen addiction. We aimed to evaluate the change in children's sleep patterns and screen usage times during the pandemic process with this study.
Materials and Methods: This was a single center, cross-sectional study. We have done face to face survey with 315 school age children and their parents who applied to Pediatrics Outpatient Clinic of Keçiören Training and Research Hospital. Parents answered Covid related questions about children's sleep habits and screen addiction.
Results:The mean age of the participating children was 9.97 (±3.59). More than half of them were boys (64,4%, n=203). While 62.2% had no cases of COVID-19 in their family, 15.5% of children were infected with coronavirus. 68.9% of parents reported that their children sleep and wake up lately. There was no change in sleep patterns of 31.1% of the children. While 86.7% of the children were exposed to the screen for a longer time, only 13.3% did not mention the screen usage time. A significant relationship was found between the duration of screen addiction and sleep hours (p=0.003). It has been found that children with increased screen useage time, sleep and wake up later.
Discussion: The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected children's sleeping routine and increased screen addiction. Studies show that looking at screens at night – for example, lingering on the phone in bed – is associated with poor sleep. In particular, disruption of sleep rhythm can adversely affect the mental health of children. It should not be forgotten that there are interactions between sleep rhythm, obesity, technology use/ addiction and mental health. We should keep children's sleep, food, technology use and lesson times as constant as possible, and we should maintain certain routines.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Pandemic, Screen addiction, Sleep, Children, COVID-19
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