Changing the type of DVDs, videos and TV shows that preschoolers watch during the day may help them sleep better at night.

An intervention program that encouraged families with children ages 3 to 5 to replace age-inappropriate, violent media content with enriching, age-appropriate media finds significant reductions in sleep problems.
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A program that encouraged parents of kids ages 3 to 5 to replace age-inappropriate media content with more suitable programming found ‘long-lasting, significant reductions in sleep problems,’ says Michelle Garrison of Seattle Children’s Research Institute, lead author of the study in Monday’s Pediatrics.

Researchers made no attempt to change the amount of TV viewed or the time of day it was watched. ‘We know that media is already playing a large role in the lives of many families,’ says Garrison. ‘We felt that just by changing the content, we could have an impact on the health and development of these kids,’ she says. ‘That was borne out in results.’

Preschoolers with sleep problems improved in both sleep and daytime tiredness over the course of the 12-month study, she says, and children who didn’t initially have sleep problems were less likely to develop them.

Insufficient and disrupted sleep has been associated with obesity, behavior […]