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Children get more
tired--and less sleep--as they get older
For many parents, waking a sleeping
youngster can sometimes feel like one of the greater challenges of child rearing. Now,
study findings suggest that behavior - not biology - is to blame for children becoming
more tired as they age.
The researchers from Israel monitored
the sleep patterns of 140 children -72 boys and 68 girls - in 2nd, 4th and 6th grades, for
5 nights. Most of the children came from two-parent, middle-or upper middle-class
families.
The students and their parents filled
out questionnaires on daytime fatigue and kept daily sleep reports.
According to results published in the
May issue of Developmental Psychology, 6th grade students get to bed on average 1 hour
later than 2nd grade students and got an average of 8 hours of sleep instead of 9 hours.
Sixth grade students also reported more
morning drowsiness and daytime sleepiness than younger students.
Lead author Dr. Avi Sadeh, a
psychologist at Tel Aviv University, pointed out that lack of sleep can affect a child's
behavior, academic performance and emotional control.
'Our studies indicate that insufficient
sleep is associated with deficits in learning and attention performance,' he said.
Studies have also found that lack of
sleep is associated with behavior problems and poor emotional regulation in children. In
teenagers, sleep deprivation can lead to increased use of stimulants such as caffeine,
alcohol, and other drugs, Sadeh added.
In other findings, girls slept more
than boys and later bedtimes were more common in families with older parents and higher
levels of stress. The authors suggest that high levels of stress activate an 'alarm
response' that triggers a hormonal system that keeps adolescents awake.
'Sleep plays an important role in child
development and is related to other major components of a child's well-being,' Sadeh and
colleagues write.
For this reason, many children should
be getting more sleep. Sadeh suggests that parents enforce earlier bedtimes if they
suspect their child is not getting enough sleep. And for those who do not comply, a little
incentive could help.
'In a recent study, we promised 6th
graders a small prize for going to sleep an hour earlier for three subsequent nights,'
Sadeh said. 'Most of them had no problem doing that and actually falling asleep much
earlier improved their performance.' |
