Experts continue to express concern about digital devices and sleep, and children, with their ever-present mobile phones and tablets, do not always get an adequate amount. Ditto for many adults. Check out my sleep resources at the bottom of this post.
One idea that improves a family’s sleep situation markedly, according to parents and pediatricians, is the concept of a centralized charging area — a space away from bedrooms where family members store and charge digital devices for overnight.
A few years ago I wrote Get Better Sleep With a Centralized Charging Station, describing the different ways people create spaces to charge devices away from bedrooms. Some of the suggestions were do-it-yourself (DIY) projects that family members can make together.
Recently, however, I observed another cool charging space. I was a guest in a house that had undergone significant renovations. The space, where the landline telephone used to be connected (see photo at left) was untouched by the renovation, and its electrical outlet was also left in place, and since no landline uses the space anymore, it looked to me like the perfect place to set up a family charging station. I plugged in my iPad and iPhone (see below).
The niche in the picture constructed many years ago and with some lovely flourishes, gave me an idea about creating a similar space. While this is a bit more complicated than the charging stations in my previous post, it is certainly a possible DIY project for some families.
With construction advice and a few good tools, family members can choose a space, figure out how to open up a small area between two studs, add some shelves and an electrical outlet, and create a new, built-in, and personalized home charging center.
Do you have a creative or clever charging area in your home? Please share your experiences and photos in the comments.
A Few Resources on Sleep Deprivation and Digital Device Screens (repeated from a previous post)
- iPads Tablets, Smartphones Disrupt Good Sleep, Study Finds – Washington Post
- Help Kids Not Lose Sleep Over Digital Devices – Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital
- Gadgets Stealing Sleep – Pew Internet
- Teens and Sleep – National Sleep Foundation
- Need More Sleep? Turn Off Gadgets and TV Earlier – NetworkWorld
- Born to Be Wired: Cell Phones Creating Sleep-Deprived Teens – Alabama TV station
- Cell Phones and Sleep – WebMD
- Can’t Sleep? Turn Off That Cell Phone – Time
- More Than 4 in 5 Teens Sleep with Cell Phone On or Near the Bed – Pew Report
- One in Three Adults Sleeps Less Than Seven Hours, Says CDC – CNN
Media! Tech! Parenting! 