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 s school bells ring, so do the alarm clocks. And with them comes a heightened awareness of how sufficient sleep is vital to a child’s good health and mental alertness.
Many children don’t get enough sleep, according to John Herman, Ph.D., director of the Sleep Disorders Clinic at Children’s Medical Center Dallas. Homework, household chores, social activities, medical conditions and overstimulating sleeping environments (such as bright lights or TVs, radios and computers left on in a child’s room) are among the reasons, but poor schedule planning on the part of parents may play the biggest role. Typically, elementary-age children require 10 or 11 hours of sleep and middle school- and high school-age children require at least nine hours of sleep. Herman says sleep-deprived children often experience excessive daytime sleepiness and mimic symptoms similar to attention-deficit disorder and/or hyperactivity. Studies show tired children experience more learning and behavioral problems.
When allowed to sleep late over the summer, children will get all of the sleep that they need, he explains. When school starts, everything changes. “In general, school schedules are not in sync with the clock in a child’s body,” Herman says, adding that “most children are frequently still in need of more sleep when it is time for them to awaken for school.” Get your child to go to bed earlier by exposing your child to early morning bright light by playing outside at dawn on weekends. This will advance the body’s clock, resulting in more alertness in the morning and sleepiness beginning earlier. Once the school year has begun, Herman suggests keeping a child’s sleep schedule the same on weekdays and weekends. |
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“A child should not have to be blasted out of bed every morning — that is sleep deprivation,” Herman says. “Children require as much sleep as it takes to wake up spontaneously and feel alert all day.”