Children need more sleep than adults. The younger the child, the more sleep they need. Below is a guideline for the amount of recommended number of hours of sleep your child should be getting based on their age [Sleep Foundation]. All children are different and have unique needs, so below is a general guide, but it's important to be in tune to what your child needs and try to match that.
What’s important is to try and establish what amount of sleep allows your child to perform best. When children don’t get enough, they will suffer from sleep deprivation.
Children will show signs of sleep deprivation when they aren’t getting enough sleep. We are all familiar with terms like the “witching hour” when our children get sleepy. The defiant, crabby, and hyperactive behaviors that are characteristic of the witching hour are also remarkably the same signs children chronically show when they are suffering from sleep deprivation.
These signs of sleep deprivation in children include:
In fact, there is an increasing body of evidence from studies that children with chronic sleep problems can be misdiagnosed with ADHD (Shur-Fen Gau 2006).
An important part of establishing whether or not your child is suffering from sleep deprivation are establishing a baseline of what behavior is normal for your child.
Choose a couple of days when you are sure your child is getting plenty of sleep, such as within the recommended range, and then observe their behavior and performance. Then, over time, look for:
If you notice either of these in your child, it may be a sign that they are sleep deprived. If you notice erratic or chronic uncharacteristic behavior, look at how much sleep they are getting.
There are several lifestyle reasons your child may be sleep deprived:
A recent study on sleep and screens conclusively showed that children who watched more TV and had TV in their bedrooms “displayed significantly shorter sleep duration and worse sleep”, and were inclined to nap longer. Importantly, the study showed that the extra napping did not offset these negative impacts.
Bedtimes and bedtime routines are also extremely important for ensuring that your child gets to sleep at the time needed for them to get enough sleep. Also, their room should be conducive to sleep, especially if your child is a light sleeper.
Besides lifestyle, children can also suffer from sleep disorders that affect sleep, such as:
If you live in Alaska and your child seems to be suffering from sleep deprivation and is not getting much screen time, please access this free online sleep test to get in touch with us.