Healthcare

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/23/finnish-teenagers-sleeping-disorders-double-20-years-energy-drinks-ipads-smartphones



The headline of the article I have read is : " Finnish teenagers with sleeping disorders double in last 20 years".The article was written by Helen Russell. It was published in the newspaper "The Guardian" on November, 23. The main idea of the article is to show how Energy Drinks and Smatphones may be harmful.

The article is telling us about Finnish teenages that suffer fron chronic fatigue. The author starts by telling the reader that researchers studied more than a million teenagers between the ages of 13-17 and found levels of insomnia at a record high and results show that around 20% of teenage girls and 10% of teenage boys in Finland now have sleeping disorders.
Also studies suggest that prolonged sleeplessness can lead to depression, diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases in later life. The author gaves as an example words of Kronholm, who has been studying sleep patterns for 30 years. He suspects that energy drinks have an undeniable impact on this problem. He pointes to “the ‘screen time’ hypothesis”. Studies show that exposure to bright light from the screens of iPads, tablets, computers and mobile phones can halt the natural production of melatonin and prevent sleep.

The author is confident that parents must educate their children in “sleep hygiene” and the importance of taking a break from electronic devices before bedtime.
The author cames to the conclusion with Kronholm`s words: “There’s a possibility that school may start a little later each day to allow children to sleep more in the mornings, but ultimately these decisions will be down to the politicians.”

I found this article very interesting and important not only for Finnish children, but for Russian ones too. Nowadays every school child has a smartphone and he use it everywhere. But not everyone knows how much harm it can give to him.
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Now I would like to ask you some questions:
1. Have you got a smartphone and how often do you use it?
2. Have you ever drank energy drink? What do you think about it?
3. How do you think: who or what is guilty in this chronic fatigue?