Association between bedroom night light exposure during sleep and children s emotional symptoms / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the association between exposure to bedroom night light during sleep and emotional symptoms in children and provide a scientific basis for subsequent effective prevention and intervention.@*Methods@#In December 2021, 1 926 students from grades 4 to 6 were recruited to conduct a student questionnaire survey in two primary schools in Tianchang of Chuzhou City, Anhui Province. The data, including general demographic information, use of night lights and curtains, emotional symptoms, and other information, was collected. Binary Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the correlation between night light use and children s emotional symptoms.@*Results@#The reporting rates of depression symptoms, generalized anxiety symptoms, social phobia, and obsessive compulsive symptoms of the children were 2.5%, 2.6%, 3.4% and 2.5%, respectively. About 12.6% of children often sleep with a night light on, and 22.0% of children did not close the curtains. Binary Logistic regression analysis revealed that frequent sleep with night lights was associated with an increased risk of depression symptoms( OR=2.29, 95%CI = 1.04- 5.03), social phobia ( OR=1.93, 95%CI =1.02-3.64) and obsessivecompulsive symptoms ( OR=3.44, 95%CI =1.72-6.88) in children( P < 0.05).@*Conclusion@#There is a positive correlation between bedroom night light exposure during sleep and the detection rate of children s emotional symptoms. The attention should be paid to bedroom light environment of children during sleep to reduce the adverse effects of night light exposure on the mental health.