Sleep and our children

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Anabel Tucker
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1 Suffolk region PTA Health & Wellness Chair Report 09/21/15 Sleep and our children The information indicates that our children were not getting enough sleep, but new information indicates that they may. Sleep is vital to your well-being, as important as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. Preschoolers (3-5): Sleep range widened by one hour to hours (previously it was 11-13) School age children (6-13): Sleep range widened by one hour to 9-11 hours (previously it was 10-11) Teenagers (14-17): Sleep range widened by one hour to 8-10 hours (previously it was ) Establish a bed and wake-time and stick to it, coming as close as you can on the weekends. A consistent sleep schedule will help you feel less tired since it allows your body to get in sync with its natural patterns. You will find that it s easier to fall asleep at bedtime with this type of routine. Sleep problems and disorders are prevalent at this age. Poor or inadequate sleep can lead to mood swings, behavioral problems such as ADHD and cognitive problems that impact on their ability to learn in school. Sleep deprivation can occur in school aged children When you are sleep deprived, you are as impaired as driving with a blood alcohol content of.08%, which is illegal for drivers in many states. Drowsy driving causes over 100,000 crashes each year. Recognize sleep deprivation and call someone else for a ride. Only sleep can save you! Below are articles, some in full and some in part in regards to the amount of sleep our children are or are not getting. The websites which the information was obtained is at the end of the paragraphs. Your body and your brain need sleep. Though no one is exactly sure what work the brain does when you're sleeping, some scientists think that the brain sorts through and stores information, replaces chemicals, and solves problems while you snooze. kidshealth.org Kids Staying Healthy Sleep is food for the brain. During sleep, important body functions and brain activity occur. Skipping sleep can be harmful even deadly, particularly if you are behind the wheel. You can look bad, you may feel moody, and you perform poorly. Sleepiness can make it hard to get along with your family and friends and hurt your scores on school exams, on the court or on the field. Remember: A brain that is hungry for sleep will get it, even when you don t expect it. For example, drowsiness and falling asleep at the wheel cause more than 100,000 car crashes every year. When you do not get enough sleep, you are more likely to have an accident, injury and/or illness. FACTS:

2 Sleep is vital to your well-being, as important as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. It can even help you to eat better and manage the stress of being a teen. Biological sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence -- meaning it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00 pm. Teens need about 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night to function best. Most teens do not get enough sleep one study found that only 15% reported sleeping 8 1/2 hours on school nights. Teens tend to have irregular sleep patterns across the week they typically stay up late and sleep in late on the weekends, which can affect their biological clocks and hurt the quality of their sleep. Many teens suffer from treatable sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy, insomnia, restless legs syndrome or sleep apnea. CONSEQUENCES: Not getting enough sleep or having sleep difficulties can: Limit your ability to learn, listen, concentrate and solve problems. You may even forget important information like names, numbers, your homework or a date with a special person in your life; Make you more prone to pimples. Lack of sleep can contribute to acne and other skin problems; Lead to aggressive or inappropriate behavior such as yelling at your friends or being impatient with your teachers or family members; Cause you to eat too much or eat unhealthy foods like sweets and fried foods that lead to weight gain; Heighten the effects of alcohol and possibly increase use of caffeine and nicotine; and Contribute to illness, not using equipment safely or driving drowsy SOLUTIONS: Make sleep a priority. Review Teen Time in this toolkit and keep a sleep diary. Decide what you need to change to get enough sleep to stay healthy, happy, and smart! Naps can help pick you up and make you work more efficiently, if you plan them right. Naps that are too long or too close to bedtime can interfere with your regular sleep. Make your room a sleep haven. Keep it cool, quiet and dark. If you need to, get eyeshades or blackout curtains. Let in bright light in the morning to signal your body to wake up. No pills, vitamins or drinks can replace good sleep. Consuming caffeine close to bedtime can hurt your sleep, so avoid coffee, tea, soda/pop and chocolate late in the day so you can get to sleep at night. Nicotine and alcohol will also interfere with your sleep. When you are sleep deprived, you are as impaired as driving with a blood alcohol content of.08%, which is illegal for drivers in many states. Drowsy driving causes over 100,000 crashes each year. Recognize sleep deprivation and call someone else for a ride. Only sleep can save you! Establish a bed and wake-time and stick to it, coming as close as you can on the weekends. A consistent sleep schedule will help you feel less tired since it allows your

3 body to get in sync with its natural patterns. You will find that it s easier to fall asleep at bedtime with this type of routine. Don t eat, drink, or exercise within a few hours of your bedtime. Don t leave your homework for the last minute. Try to avoid the TV, computer and telephone in the hour before you go to bed. Stick to quiet, calm activities, and you ll fall asleep Children aged six to 13 need 9-11 hours of sleep. At the same time, there is an increasing demand on their time from school (e.g., homework), sports and other extracurricular and social activities. In addition, school-aged children become more interested in TV, computers, the media and Internet as well as caffeine products all of which can lead to difficulty falling asleep, nightmares and disruptions to their sleep. In particular, watching TV close to bedtime has been associated with bedtime resistance, difficulty falling asleep, anxiety around sleep and sleeping fewer hours. Sleep problems and disorders are prevalent at this age. Poor or inadequate sleep can lead to mood swings, behavioral problems such as ADHD and cognitive problems that impact on their ability to learn in school. Sleep Tips for School-aged Children Teach school-aged children about healthy sleep habits. Continue to emphasize need for regular and consistent sleep schedule and bedtime routine. Make child's bedroom conducive to sleep dark, cool and quiet. Keep TV and computers out of the bedroom. Avoid caffeine. Nation Sleep Foundation: Signs of sleep deprivation in school-aged children can include: Mood. Sleep deprivation may cause your school-aged child to be moody, irritable, and cranky. In addition, he may have a difficult time regulating his mood, such as by getting frustrated or upset more easily. Behavior. School-aged children who do not get enough sleep are more likely to have behavior problems, such as noncompliance and hyperactivity. Cognitive ability. Inadequate sleep may result in problems with attention, memory, decision making, reaction time, and creativity, all which are important in school. Preschoolers (3-5 years) typically sleep hours each night and most do not nap after five years of age. As with toddlers, difficulty falling asleep and waking up during the night are common. With further development of imagination, preschoolers commonly experience nighttime fears and nightmares. In addition, sleepwalking and sleep terrors peak during preschool years. Sleep Tips for Preschoolers Maintain a regular and consistent sleep schedule. Have a relaxing bedtime routine that ends in the room where the child sleeps.

4 Child should sleep in the same sleeping environment every night, in a room that is cool, quiet and dark and without a TV. In 2004 the National Sleep Foundation conducted a poll: Children aren t getting enough sleep, and many parents do not identify their children s sleep problems as an issue that should be addressed. Add to the mix that doctors often aren t asking enough questions about their young patients sleep. These are some of the major findings in the 2004 Sleep in Americapoll, the first nationwide survey on the sleep habits of children and their parents. The National Sleep Foundation commissioned WB&A Market Research to conduct a national survey of adults living in the United States who have a child present in their household age 10 and younger. The primary objective of this poll was to describe children s sleep habits and sleep problems. It is clear from the poll results that we need to focus as much on the sleeping half of children s lives as we do on the waking half. Children are clearly not getting enough sleep, says Jodi A. Mindell, PhD, who served as Chair of NSF s 2004 Poll Task Force: And a remarkable number of children have some kind of sleep problem. We need to help parents to become better educated about positive sleep practices so that their children can get the sleep they need to be able to function at their best during the day. The poll results indicate that on average, children get less sleep during a 24-hour period than recommended by sleep experts. For example: Infants get 12.7 hours, when experts recommend that from 3-11 months they should get hours. Toddlers get 11.7 hours, when hours are recommended for children aged 1-3 years. Preschoolers get 10.4 hours, while it s recommended that children 3-5 years of age should average hours. School-aged children (1st through 5th grades) get 9.5 hours, but experts recommend hours. In 2002, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidelines recommending that every child be screened for snoring as part of a regular health exam, notes Ronald D. Chervin, MD, a Poll Task Force member. The poll indicates that only 28% of school-aged children are asked about snoring. It s important to understand that sleep apnea affects 1-3% of children, and more subtle problems with breathing during sleep may affect many others among the 10% or more of all children who snore regularly, he adds. These disorders could have important consequences on daytime cognition, behavior and development. Therefore, it s important to discuss warning signs when children visit their doctors. I would like to see physicians spend as much time educating their patients about sleep as they do about other health behaviors, such as adequate nutrition, says Dr. Mindell. Pediatric health practitioners should be sending the message to their patients that sleep is important. If children are asked about sleep by their doctor it will help stress that the development of healthy sleep habits is essential.

5 The poll results suggest that sleep is the forgotten country and is still not getting the attention it merits, adds Dr. Carskadon. It plays out in the home, in the pediatrician s office, and in school. Sleep is an important factor in the lives of children. The newest information for 2015: National Sleep Foundation Recommends New Sleep Durations National Sleep Foundation Completes Rigorous Study and Updates Recommended Sleep Times at Each Life Stage WASHINGTON, DC, (February 2, 2015)--The National Sleep Foundation (NSF), along with a multi-disciplinary expert panel, issued its new recommendations for appropriate sleep durations. The report recommends wider appropriate sleep ranges for most age groups. The results are published in Sleep Health: The Journal of the National Sleep Foundation. The National Sleep Foundation convened experts from sleep, anatomy and physiology, as well as pediatrics, neurology, gerontology and gynecology to reach a consensus from the broadest range of scientific disciplines. The panel revised the recommended sleep ranges for all six children and teen age groups. A summary of the new recommendations includes: Newborns (0-3 months): Sleep range narrowed to hours each day (previously it was 12-18) Infants (4-11 months): Sleep range widened two hours to hours (previously it was 14-15) Toddlers (1-2 years): Sleep range widened by one hour to hours (previously it was 12-14) Preschoolers (3-5): Sleep range widened by one hour to hours (previously it was 11-13) School age children (6-13): Sleep range widened by one hour to 9-11 hours (previously it was 10-11) Teenagers (14-17): Sleep range widened by one hour to 8-10 hours (previously it was ) Younger adults (18-25): Sleep range is 7-9 hours (new age category) Adults (26-64): Sleep range did not change and remains 7-9 hours Older adults (65+): Sleep range is 7-8 hours (new age category) This is the first time that any professional organization has developed age-specific recommended sleep durations based on a rigorous, systematic review of the world scientific literature relating sleep duration to health, performance and safety, said Charles A. Czeisler, PhD, MD, chairman of the board of the National Sleep Foundation, chief of sleep and circadian disorders at Brigham and Women s Hospital, and Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. The National Sleep Foundation is providing these scientifically grounded guidelines on the amount of sleep we need each night to improve the sleep health of the millions of individuals and parents who rely on us for this information. A new range, may be appropriate, has been added to acknowledge the individual variability in appropriate sleep durations. The recommendations now define times as either (a) recommended; (b) may be appropriate for some individuals; or (c) not recommended. The National Sleep Foundation Sleep Duration Recommendations will help individuals make sleep schedules that are within a healthy range. They also serve as a useful starting point for individuals to discuss their sleep with their health care providers, said David Cloud, CEO of the National Sleep Foundation. National Sleep Foundation s Sleep Duration Recommendations: Age Recommended May be appropriate Not recommended

6 Newborns 0-3 months 14 to 17 hours 11 to 13 hours 18 to 19 hours Less than 11 hours More than 19 hours Infants 4-11 months 12 to 15 hours 10 to 11 hours 16 to 18 hours Less than 10 hours More than 18 hours Toddlers 1-2 years 11 to 14 hours 9 to 10 hours 15 to 16 hours Less than 9 hours More than 16 hours Preschoolers 3-5 years 10 to 13 hours 8 to 9 hours 14 hours Less than 8 hours More than 14 hours School-aged Children 6-13 years Teenagers years 9 to 11 hours 7 to 8 hours 12 hours 8 to 10 hours 7 hours 11 hours Less than 7 hours More than 12 hours Less than 7 hours More than 11 hours Young Adults years 7 to 9 hours 6 hours 10 to 11 hours Less than 6 hours More than 11 hours Adults years 7 to 9 hours 6 hours 10 hours Less than 6 hours More than 10 hours Older Adults 65 years 7 to 8 hours 5 to 6 hours 9 hours Less than 5 hours More than 9 hours The recommendations are the result of multiple rounds of consensus voting after a comprehensive review of published scientific studies on sleep and health. The expert panel included six sleep experts and experts from the following stakeholder organizations: - American Association of Anatomists - American Academy of Pediatrics - American College of Chest Physicians - American Geriatrics Society - American Neurological Association - American Physiological Society - American Psychiatric Association - American Thoracic Society - Gerontological Society of America - Human Anatomy and Physiology Society - Society for Research in Human Development - American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists The NSF has committed to regularly reviewing and providing scientifically rigorous recommendations, says Max Hirshkowitz, PhD, Chair of the National Sleep Foundation Scientific Advisory Council. The public can be confident that these recommendations represent the best guidance for sleep duration and health. To view the full results and methodology of the report, please visit sleephealthjournal.org. About the National Sleep Foundation

7 The National Sleep Foundation is dedicated to improving health and well-being through sleep education and advocacy. It is wellknown for its annual Sleep in America poll. The Foundation is a charitable, educational and scientific not-for-profit organization located in Washington, DC. Its membership includes researchers and clinicians focused on sleep medicine, health professionals, patients, families affected by drowsy driving and more than 900 healthcare facilities.

Module 04: Sleep. Module 04:

Module 04: Sleep. Module 04: Module 04: Sleep Module 04: Sleep Module 04: SLEEP This module includes the following sections: Key Messages Common Sleep Challenges Medications and Sleep Tips from Families for Getting a Good Night s