Just THINKING About Mobile Devices Disrupts Kids’ Sleep

Parents, shut off your kids’ mobile devices at night and get them out of the room, because a new analysis shows that children with access to smartphones and tablets at night don’t get enough sleep and are groggy during the day – whether they use them or not. [1]

Researchers reviewed 20 previous studies and discovered that kids who use portable media devices around bedtime were more than twice as likely as kids who didn’t use them to have short sleep times. Not only that, but the same was found of kids who had access to the devices, but didn’t actually use them.

Lead study author Ben Carter of King’s College London said:

“A lot of people argue that it’s the device light emission that leads to sleep outcomes, but even if you’re not using it, even having the presence of the device near you affects sleep.

My personal view is it’s due to continuous stimulation from things like social media engagement.

Your social group is active and you can be thinking about it. If I text a loved one an hour before bed then I’m hoping I might get a reply.”

Unconscious but Connected

Carter and his colleagues looked at studies of children aged 6 to 19 years, covering a total of more than 125,000 kids, which measured exposures to tablets, smartphones, and other types of mobile devices, but excluded research involving TV, personal computers, or sources of electromagnetic radiation.

In every study, bedtime media device use was linked to trouble falling or staying asleep, and poor daytime function due to sleepiness.

Kids who used media devices at bedtime were found to have insufficient sleep times, considered less than 10 hours per night for children, and less than 9 hours for teens.

Children who had access to mobile devices at bedtime at least 3 times a week, or who had a device in their sleep environment, also had poorer measures of sleep quality and quantity than kids with less or no access.

Dr. Charles Czeisler, director of the Sleep Health Institute and chief of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said:

“It’s normal to wake up during the night but when the phone is there, many people instead of just turning over will tap on the phone ostensibly to check the time, will see 15 text messages from their buddy or whatever, then 2 hours later they’re going back to bed.”

Czeisler, who co-authored an editorial accompanying the review, added:

“It’s very engaging technology and when it’s present in the bedroom it reduces sleep duration.”

In other words, kids are continuously stimulated by devices in their environment, even when they are not using them.

Carter explained:

“One theory I hold is that there may be the effect of continuous mental stimulation and engagement which is keeping children awake.” [2]

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: What Parents Can Do:

In the editorial, Czeisler writes that blue-light blocking apps for smartphones and tablets can help reduce some of the negative sleep effects caused by mobile devices. Blue light interferes with the body’s internal clock and makes the brain tell your body you should be awake, when you really should be snoring away in your bed.

Source: How It Works

Additionally, Czeisler says:

“For those concerned about the effect of media use on sleep time, technology is now available to restrict service between designated hours or allow a maximum daily duration of media use each day, while allowing for parental overrides in exceptional circumstances. Such programs can be used to reinforce consistent bedtimes and wake times, which are vital for sleep health, especially in children and adolescents.”

It’s likely your smartphone has an option to shut off notifications between specified hours of your choosing. I know mine does. Of course, it’s also likely your kids know how to turn notifications back on…

The most effective (and perhaps most obvious) solution is to keep mobile devices out of kids’ bedrooms. Have children and teens charge their devices in another room. You can purchase family charging stations at just about any store that sells smartphones. [3]

It’s also important for parents to instill in their kids the importance of “winding down” before bedtime. About an hour or so before bed, have your child take a calming bath and read a book together. Have teens “unplug” and read a book or do some other quiet, relaxing activity before lights-out.

Most importantly, parents should model healthy sleeping habits. Establish your own “winding down” routine, and make sure if you buy a family charging station, that your device is plugged in, too.

Sources:

[1] Reuters

[2] CBC

[3] Common Sense Media

How It Works

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About Julie Fidler:
	Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog.

Maybe All Those “Smart” Gadgets And Appliances From China Aren’t Such A Smart Idea (VIDEO)

You know all of those cool, sci-fi gadgets that people are beginning to get that are connected to the internet in their homes?  The voice controlled thermostats, the wireless printers and cameras, the home security systems, the food scale that sends the calories to your phone app, those “smart” appliances that text you to pick up milk, and the DVRS that can be programmed via your phone from work?

Apparently, those things may not be so smart after all because they played a big role in the cyber attack that took place last Friday. Security analysts believe that Friday’s attack on popular websites such as Reddit, Twitter, Netflix, and Spotify was the first one carried out by hackers who used the “Internet of Things.”

Here’s how the Internet of Things works:

Who else thinks that this is how Skynet got started? Maybe it’s just me.

The attack was on one service, Dyn.

The massive attack took down the internet across the country. The website Downdetector provided a map that shows how much of the US was affected:

The attack was on one company, and everything else fell over like a row of dominoes.

All of the companies involved use Dyn, a cloud-based Internet performance management company.

Dyn was the target of the attack, and that, in turn, affected other companies.

Dyn is sort of like a phone book that directs users to the internet address of the website. On Friday a distributed denial of service attack, (DDoS) affected Dyn by sending thousands of messages at the same time, which overwhelmed the service.

Security company Flashpoint said it had confirmed that the attack used “botnets” infected with the “Mirai” malware. From their site:

Flashpoint has confirmed that some of the infrastructure responsible for the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against Dyn DNS were botnets compromised by Mirai malware. Mirai botnets were previously used in DDoS attacks against security researcher Brian Krebs’ blog “Krebs On Security” and French internet service and hosting provider OVH. Mirai malware targets Internet of Things (IoT) devices like routers, digital video records (DVRs), and webcams/security cameras, enslaving vast numbers of these devices into a botnet, which is then used to conduct DDoS attacks. Flashpoint has confirmed that at least some of the devices used in the Dyn DNS attacks are DVRs, further matching the technical indicators and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) associated with previous known Mirai botnet attacks.

While Flashpoint has confirmed that Mirai botnets were used in the October 21, 2016 attack against Dyn, they were separate and distinct botnets from those used to execute the DDoS attacks against “Krebs on Security” and OVH. Earlier this month, “Anna_Senpai,” the hacker operating the large Mirai botnet used in the Krebs DDoS, released Mira’s source code online. Since this release, copycat hackers have used the malware to create botnets of their own in order to launch DDoS attacks.

It is unknown if the attacks against Dyn DNS are linked to the DDoS attacks against Krebs, OVH, or other previous attacks. Given the proliferation of the Mirai malware, the relationship between the ongoing Dyn DDoS attacks, previous attacks, and “Anna_Senpai” is unclear.

Coincidentally, many of the  vulnerable “smart” devices are made in China.

Many of the devices involved come from Chinese manufacturers, with easy-to-guess usernames and passwords that cannot be changed by the user – a vulnerability which the malware exploits. According to the BBC:

“Mirai scours the Web for IoT (Internet of Things) devices protected by little more than factory-default usernames and passwords,” explained cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs, “and then enlists the devices in attacks that hurl junk traffic at an online target until it can no longer accommodate legitimate visitors or users.”

The owner of the device would generally have no way of knowing that it had been compromised to use in an attack, he wrote.

Mr Krebs is intimately familiar with this type of incident, after his website was targeted by a similar assault in September, in one of the biggest web attacks ever seen…That attack began around 8 p.m. ET on Sept. 20, and initial reports put it at approximately 665 Gigabits of traffic per second. Additional analysis on the attack traffic suggests the assault was closer to 620 Gbps in size, but in any case this is many orders of magnitude more traffic than is typically needed to knock most sites offline. (source)

I’m sure those easy passwords and vulnerabilities aren’t deliberate. China would never sneak Trojan horses into the USA, would they?

Article first appeared at DaisyLuther.com

Study: Mobile Devices are Causing, Stress, Anxiety at Home

Smartphones and tablets are replacing face-to-face interactions, and families are suffering because of it, a new study says.

According to lead study author Dr. Jenny Radesky, assistant professor of developmental behavioral pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, incoming communications from work, friends, and the world at large is “contaminating” family mealtime, bedtime, and playtime. Whether you agree with the term ‘contamination’ or not, I think we can all agree these times are changing due to these technological devices. [1]

Radesky says:

“This tension, this stress, of trying to balance newly emerging technologies with the established patterns and rituals of our lives is extremely common, and was expressed by almost all of our participants. We have to toggle between what might be stress-inducing or highly cognitively demanding mobile content and responding to our kids’ behavior.”

As a result, there is more tension between parents and their children, with increased stress in the home.

The findings are based on interviews with 35 parents and caregivers of young children in the Boston area. The study included 22 mothers, 9 fathers, and 4 grandmothers.

Participants were between the ages of 23 and 55, with an average age of 36, and cared for toddlers or children up to age 8. Roughly 1/3 were single parents, and nearly six in 10 were white.

Joseph Bayer, an assistant professor in the School of Communication at Ohio State University, found the results unsurprising. It all makes perfect sense to Bayer, who says:

“Given past research on texting while driving and mentally demanding tasks, I can see how ‘texting while parenting’ would lead to some cognitive and emotional conflict.” [2]

Some Positive Takeaways

There were some positive associations with using mobile devices at home, too.

Here are a few interesting findings from the study:

• While many parents said devices made it easier for them to work from home, this sometimes created more anxiety.

• Some participants said smartphones gave them a break from the boredom and stress of raising young children.

• Many parents admitted that using a mobile device could affect their mood, thereby affecting their interactions with their child.

• Children sometimes acted out to get attention if their parent or caregiver spent too much time on their device. As a result, caregivers sometimes reacted angrily.

• Parents who used mobile devices during meals interacted less with their children, and became stressed when their children tried to divert their attention away from the device.

Larry Rosen, professor emeritus at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who wasn’t involved in the study, says:

“Younger generations believe that they can multitask with anything and that is simply not true.

What they rapidly discover is that they cannot do two tasks together as well as each separately, and, in fact, it adds another layer of stress to their already stressed lives raising children.”

Radesky holds the same views, saying:

“So much of their lives are contained in these devices – work, friendships, world news, loads of information – so they elicit much more in-depth cognitive and emotional responses from us, and this can be even harder to balance with attention to each other.”

Read: 5 Ways to Recharge, Enjoy Life Without Technology

Setting Some Boundaries

Radesky has some advice for parents and caregivers who are struggling to keep all of the balls in the air while still holding onto their electronic gadgets:

• Set boundaries that include device-free periods and device-free areas of the home.

• Keep track of your mobile use and cut back if you find that you’re spending too much time staring at a device. There are downloadable apps that can help you do that. [1] [2]

• Parents should pay attention to which activities are the most stressful, and try to avoid those tasks when it’s family time. [2]

Here’s something else for parents to consider. A study published this past spring shows that 1/2 of U.S. kids are addicted to technology, so there is no doubt that this problem is pervasive, and growing.

Sources:

[1] HealthDay

[2] Reuters

Featured image source: NPR

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About Julie Fidler:
	Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog.