Health experts have warned that allowing children to sleep in a lit room could inhibit their growth and lead to other health and social problems.
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| A boy has his eyes checked. Sleeping with the lights on could lead to ageing, depression, damage to children's eyes and disrupt sleep patterns, experts have warned. |
Some parents leave the lights on while their children are sleeping for a variety of reasons. For example, seven-year-old Ho Ngoc Tram Anh, who lives in the capital's Linh Dam Urban Area, said that she was unable to sleep in total darkness because she imagined evil and scary things such as devils, ghosts and burglars were in her room.
Her mother Vu My Linh has agreed to let her sleep with the lights on.
"It's what the child wants and there is no problem," Linh said
Many parents also decide to leave the lights on to make overnight care easier.
"The bright light makes it more convenient for mothers to feed and take care of their babies during the night," said Nguyen Phuong Lien, mother of an infant.
According to Nguyen Hoang Nghien from the Light Education Biology Centre, allowing children to sleep with the lights on could have bad effects on children, especially the obstruction of melatonin secretion.
According to the American National Sleep Foundation, melatonin is a natural hormone made by our body's pineal gland, a pea-sized gland located just above the middle of the brain. It plays a key role in the human sleep-wake cycle.
Nghien said that melatonin helped maintain the normal life cycle and adjust physiological functions. The secretion of melatonin occurs during normal sleep hours in a dark environment which is inhibited by the presence of light.
"We have night and day. Bright light at night not only blocks the production of melatonin but also diverts the normal life cycle. Our life needs to follow natural growth," Nghien said.
Doctor Nguyen Minh Tuan, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, also mentioned the harmful effects bright light during sleeping hours has on the balance of life.
"For example, people often use light to hasten plant growth or to encourage hens to lay more eggs. With that in mind we can reason that the presence of light at night could make people get old faster."
In terms of mental health, experts had realised that the presence of bright light during sleep could excite our nervous systems, resulting in sleeping difficulties and bad sleep, Tuan said.
Too much light at night could lead to symptoms of depression, according to Randy Nelson, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at America's Ohio State University in reference to a study conducted on mice.
Researchers found that mice housed in a lighted room 24 hours a day exhibited more depressive symptoms than did similar mice that had a normal light-dark cycle.
"The increasing rate of depressive disorders in humans corresponds with the increasing use of light at night in modern society," he said.
Doctor Nghiem Thu Hang, a specialist in paediatrics and ophthalmology of the Hai Ba Trung District Health Centre, said that the children who slept in lighted rooms could suffer from eye problems.
"In Viet Nam, there has been no official research on the negative effects sleeping in lit rooms has on children's eyes, but many researchers from the United States and other developed countries have shown that small children and babies who sleep with the light on are more likely to grow up short-sighted than children who sleep in the dark."
Hang particularly stressed the significant effects sleeplessness and sleeping disorders could have on children's minds and lives. In addition to appearing sleepy during the day, they may have a short attention spans, be hyperactive or irritable.
To overcome a child's fear of the dark, parents are advised to leave a dim light on while the child is falling asleep and waiting until they are in a deep sleep before turning it off. Use of a dim light is also suggested for late night trips to the toilet or baby feeding, as a bright light could wake us up completely.
(Source: VNS)
