Babies' sleep and subsequent brain development may be being harmed by use of ipads and other touchscreen devices, research suggests.

The British study found that every hour infants spent on such devices was linked to a 16 minutes less sleep.

The research on more than 700 families is the first to look at the link between touchscreen devices and sleep in babies and toddlers.

It found that some toddlers aged 12 to 18 months were spending as much as five hours a day on touch screen devices. Even babies less than a year old were found to be spending as much as two and a half hours on such gadgets.

Average screen time was far lower, at less than 9 minutes for babies aged six to 11 months, rising to 44 minutes for those aged between 26 and 36 months.

Researchers at Birkbeck, University of London and King’s College London questioned 715 parents about their child’s daily touchscreen use and sleep patterns.