How Much Should Kids Sleep? Nobody Knows For Sure.

[salvorhardin]

Hah! I love it when someone actually bothers to look at the research and the honest answer turns out to be, "We don't know."

Like most parents, I worry that my child isn't getting enough sleep.

Now it turns out doctors have been warning that kids don't get enough sleep for over a century — long before iPads, texting, and YouTube robbed children of peaceful slumber.

What's more, there's no solid scientific basis for pediatricians' recommendations on the amount of time children need to sleep. That's the word from researchers in Australia, who combed the literature to find out how children's sleep time — and doctors' sleep recommendations — have changed over decades...

What hasn't changed is the dire predictions from health professionals on the consequences of shirking sleep. "This is a sleepless age and more and more ... we are turning night into day," one expert moaned in 1905.

Full post: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/02/13/146808264/how-much-should-kids-sleep-nobody-knows-for-sure

[HuckleB]

1. This piece seems like a very pseudo-scientific attempt to make the story even more confusing.

What does a recommendation from 1905 have to do with the science of the matter? Oh, yeah. Uh, nothing.

Anyone who has combed the literature in regard to sleep and mental health issues is bound to wonder about this "conclusion."

[mopinko]

3. +1

[gkhouston]

2. Wow, something I never agonized over.

My kid "didn't sleep enough" as a newborn, and later slept "too much" as a small child. As long as she wasn't a crankosaurus, I assumed she was getting enough rest.

[kdmorris]

4. ROFL crankosaurus....!!!!

Great description! I love it

[gkhouston]

5. Those are the days when my husband and I turn to each other and say:

"I apologize for my daughter's behavior."

[kdmorris]

6. LOL we turned to each other and said "look at how YOUR daughter is acting"

Somehow... it was funny when it used to happen (they are 24, 21 and 20 now), though when you put it in print is sounds seriously bad

[Codeine]

7. Til they wake up. nt

[SheilaT]

8. Here's what I've learned

from personal experience, and from what I've read.

1. Individuals vary in their need for sleep.

2. A lot of people don't get enough sleep.

3. There's a myth out there that you can learn to do with less sleep.

4. Individuals vary in their need for sleep.

5. It is not possible to sleep too much. Once you've slept enough, you'll wake up and not be able to go back to sleep.

6. If you're tired, you probably need more sleep.

7. Some of us are morning people, some of us are later in the day people. There is nothing inherently virtuous about being a morning person. Remember this when you want something after 6pm.

8. Certain very bad accidents (Three Mile Island, the Exxon Valdez) have occurred in the wee hours of the morning, when humans are at their least alert.

9. Not getting enough sleep seems connected to various kinds of illness. On this, I can report anecdotally that when I'm sufficiently sleep deprived I tend to get a cold. It's been my casual observation that this is true of others. Or a sleep deprived person seems more likely to get other illnesses, depending on what they might be susceptible to.

10. Getting adequate sleep seems to be correlated to good health.

I know there's research out there that seems to connect too much sleep with illness, but I think it's the other way around: certain illnesses make someone tend to sleep more. Again, if you've slept enough (and you're in normal good health) you'll wake up and not be able to go to sleep.

11. Our sleep needs change over our lifetimes. Babies and young children nap. So do older people. In between, most of us, when healthy, don't nap, but stay up for a bunch of hours at a time, then sleep all night, however long that is for us individually.

The reason I keep on trying to emphasize the individual aspect of this is because we all are a little different from each other. Personally, I have always needed a little more sleep than is considered ideal, and often can sleep for very long periods of time. I am also exceedingly healthy, just in case there's a connection.

What has made my crazy over the years is those who make statements like, No one needs more than (some stated time) sleep. Or, comments about how Thomas Edison supposedly only slept four hours a day. I've also read that his lab assistants noted that he napped a lot.

As for kids, it is definitely true that modern life, starting with the electric light bulb, has tended to cut down on the sleep that they get. If there really is a correlation (let alone a cause and effect) of lack of sleep and assorted illnesses, that's going to be exceedingly difficult to figure out. But teachers certainly notice how so many kids are not functioning well in the classroom. And when schools experiment with having high school start a little later in the morning, all of a sudden the kids aren't falling asleep in the first period. Gee, I wonder why.

My younger son (age 24) recently complained to me that he seemed to need a lot of sleep, and I told him that I have always been that way myself, so he comes by it honestly. There are others out there who really do exactly as well on less sleep. Neither one is better or worse than the other.