Children are chronically sleep deprived, just like their parents. Here’s how to fix that.
As a baby, Collin Kent slept better with the television on. “He had to have noise to go to sleep, and music just didn’t cut it,” his mom Kristen Kent said. Kent and her husband both liked to sleep with the TV on themselves, so it seemed normal. Now, at age 15, Collin still sleeps with the TV on every night, and has the same problems getting enough sleep as his mother.
Kristen and Collin Kent are just one example of how a parent’s sleep problem can be passed on to a child. Many American adults struggle to get enough sleep, and a new survey by the National Sleep Foundation suggests that American kids are consistently getting hours less sleep than is recommended by pediatricians, too.
This may be setting kids up to have chronic sleep problems and sleep deprivation for the rest of their lives, some experts think.
The NSF polled over 1,000 American parents with kids between the ages of 6 to 17. The parents were asked about their kids’ sleep habits on school nights, and they reported that their kids are often missing the mark. For example, kids aged 6 to 10 should be getting 10 to 11 hours of sleep per night, but instead they only get 8.9 hours, on average. As kids age into their teens, they get even less sleep, even though they should still get 8.5 to 9.5 hours per night.
“Most kids are getting one to two hours of sleep less than recommended, and that’s a lot,” said Jyoti Krishna, MD, the head of pediatric sleep at the Cleveland Clinic.
Kent, who is a stay-at-home mom in Detroit, Mich., estimates her son goes to bed anywhere between 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., and he wakes up at 6 a.m. for school. That means that on some nights, he gets the 8.5 to 9.5 hours he needs, but other nights, he’s getting much less, down to 5.5 hours.
The poor sleeping habits that are started early in life will likely continue as a child ages, which has troubling implications for the next generation of adults, Dr. Krishna said. As adults have gotten busier and busier, sleep habits have continuously declined. This survey suggests that parents are modeling their poor sleep habits for their children, he said.
“We pass on a lot of habits to our children,” Krishna said, noting that how parents eat and exercise will also affect their children.
The trend of poor sleep is worrisome to Dorit Koren, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Chicago. Dr. Koren said she’s not sure it’s even possible for the next generation’s lives to get even more disrupted and sleep-deprived than ours currently are, but chronic sleep deprivation can cause serious problems for kids.
Poor sleep habits increase the risk of several health problems, including high blood pressure, heart problems, and even a higher risk of premature death in adults. These same problems may apply to kids. Not getting enough sleep is also tied to higher risk of obesity, Koren said, and the data is actually most convincing in children.
Most importantly, kids’ main job is to be students and learn a lot, and sleep deprivation makes it harder for them to do so, Koren said. Being tired impedes concentration, which leads to declining school performance.
Bad sleep can also make kids grumpier and “less pleasant to be around,” Krishna said.
How to Make Your Kids Get More Sleep
Even though the sleep stats were discouraging, Kristen Knutson, PhD, the NSF’s 2014 Sleep in America scholar, said she was encouraged by parents’ reported willingness to fix the problem.
“The vast majority of the parents recognize how important sleep is,” Knutson said, and the survey found that 9 of 10 parents said sleep is important for their children’s next-day performance.
Here are four ways parents can help improve their kids’ sleep:
Take electronics out of the bedroom, or turn them off at night.
The survey found that nearly three-quarters of 6 to 17-year-olds have one type of electronic in their bedroom while asleep. When those devices are on, kids get less sleep. Solve the problem by taking TVs or other electronics out of the bedroom. Everyone in the family should leave their cell phones outside the bedroom during sleep, perhaps at a charging station in the living room.
Don’t overschedule evenings — leave some time to relax.
Everyone’s busy, and often this results in hectic schedules that cut into bedtime. Resist the temptation — you’ll be better off doing a few things very well than barely making it to everything. Try to spend the last hour of the night without television, because the bright light will inhibit the production of melatonin, a chemical that promotes sleepiness. Talk, play a game (board games, not video games!), or read a book.
Give your kids (and yourself!) a bedtime, and follow it.
While most parents (92 percent) have some sleep rules, only 62 percent follow them. Kids whose parents did follow through on rules like bedtime, how late the TV can stay on, or when kids have to stop drinking caffeine slept over an hour more than kids whose parents didn’t enforce the rules. Create some boundaries and bedtimes, and stick to them. It’s also OK to give your kids a break, by perhaps extending bedtime on Friday, said Krishna, but treat it as an exception, not the norm.
Set a good example for your kids by prioritizing sleep yourself.
The survey found that if a parent keeps electronics in the bedroom, their kids are more likely to as well. Kids are going to mimic their parents’ example. Enforcing your kids’ bedtime will fail if you routinely fall asleep on the couch in front of the TV in the wee hours of the morning. Create an adult-friendly set of bedtimes and sleep rules, and follow them — the result will be better rest for you, and your kids.
Susan E. Matthews
NOV