A new parent’s guide from the National Wildlife Federation says kids could get a better night’s sleep if they spent more time outdoors.   “Green Time for Sleep Time” calls for rebalancing the amount of time children spend in front of screens such as TVs, computers and gaming systems and the amount of time they spend outdoors.

Kevin Coyle , Vice President for Education and Training at the National Wildlife Federation, says kids spend about 7 to 8 hours on screen time a day compared to about a half hour outside. He adds most of the outdoor time is related to organized sports.

Coyle says they found a lot of scientific evidence that children who spend the most time on electronic media have trouble sleeping because of the way it interacts with their brain. He says the brain waves literally scatter when they play electronic media.  He says when they’re in a more soothing, green setting; their brain waves become more tranquil.

Coyle says exposure to natural light normalizes the body’s internal clock. He says children also get better exercise when they’re outdoors, burning up more energy.  The federation wants parents to think as much as they can about ways for children to get some more outdoor time.

Coyle adds that a ten-year-old needs 11-12 hours of sleep a day. But he says typically that child will get more like 9 hours a day.  He says that means the average American child is an hour to two hours a day sleep deprived.

Coyle says people who remember spending hours a day playing outside in the summer or going outside after school every day- those patterns are gone.  He says the kids are basically inside most of the time.