ANCSLEEP BLOG

How Much Sleep Do Children Need?

Children need more sleep than adults. The younger the child, the more sleep they need. Below is a guideline for the amount of recommended, minimum, and maximum amount of sleep your child should be getting based on their age [Sleep Foundation]. All children are different and have unique needs, hence there is a recommended number listed, and outside of that a minimum and maximum amount of sleep are listed as well:

• Newborns 0-4 months
  • 11-19 hours per day; Recommended 14-17 hours per day
• Infants 4-12 months
  • 10-18 hours per day; Recommended 12-15 hours
• Toddlers 1-3 years
  • 9-16 hours per day; Recommended 11-14 hours
• Preschoolers 3-5 years
  • 8-14 hours per day; Recommended 10-12 hours
• Adolescents 6-13
  • 7-12 hours per day; Recommended 9-11 hours
• Teenagers 13-18 years
  • 7-11 hours per day; Recommended 8-10 hours

It's important to try and establish what amount of sleep allows your child to perform best. When children don’t get enough sleep, they will experience sleep deprivation.

False Beliefs About Sleep

Sleep myths are false statements that are regularly disseminated online, at home, among friends, etc.  Unfortunately, sleep myths can also be damaging to your health if you develop sleep deprivation by adhering to them.

Sleep deprivation is an insidious condition that lowers performance and quality of life in the following aspects of your life:

• Socially
• Physically
• Mentally
• Emotionally

Below are the common sleep myths and the truth about them. 

What is Clinical Depression?

Clinical depression is a mood disorder that causes you to feel helpless, apathetic to your life and outcomes, hopeless, numb, or sad, among other things. It can make it hard to get out bed in the morning, feel excited about things that are happening in your life, or cause you to distance yourself from friends and loved ones.

While feeling sad is a normal part of being a human, the feelings associated with clinical depression are chronic and intense enough to interfere with relationships, personal habits, personality, jobs, and so on.

Do you work hours outside of the “typical” 8-5 business day? Do you work days on and then days off? If so, then you are like millions of Americans who are considered shift workers. Especially in Alaska, the summer season often means a large influx of shift work.

• Pilots
• Construction workers
• Police workers
• Doctors and nurses
• Firefighters
• Taxi/Lyft/Uber drivers
• Customer service
• Retail

Do any of these look familiar? While shift work comes with certain perks, such as better pay for similar jobs and the ability to get stretches of time with no work, shift workers are also at a disadvantage when it comes to long-term health and sleep outcomes.

What is a Risk Factor for Insomnia?

A risk factor is something that increases your likelihood of developing a disease or condition. Insomnia, like other sleep disorders, has a number of different potential causes and factors that can put you at risk for developing insomnia.

Complicating matters is the fact there are two types of insomnia:

• Primary insomnia – no clear, underlying cause.
• Secondary insomnia – due to an underlying or secondary cause.

Adding to this is that there are two modes of insomnia as well, which concerns how long insomnia lasts:

• Acute insomnia – short-term, a month or less
• Chronic insomnia – symptomatic, long-term (at least three times per week for a month or more)

What is Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation is the chronic condition of not receiving adequate sleep. Adequate sleep will differ from person to person, and change as we age. Most of us suffer from sleep deprivation because we either have trouble staying asleep, or getting to sleep. 

It's also important to distinguish between shorter term sleep deprivation, such as sleep deprivation causes by anxieties or stress that will soon pass, and long term sleep deprivation, such as a chronic lack of sleep that may spread over months or years.

Sleep deprivation is usually followed by sleep bingeing (i.e. on the weekends) before the cycle of sleep deprivation starts over. Chronic sleep deprivation has a strong link to depression. One of the common signs of insomnia and sleep apnea, for example, is depression.

Primary vs Secondary Insomnia

Before talking about causes of insomnia, it is important to understand that there are two types of insomnia:

• Primary insomnia
• Secondary insomnia

Adding to this is that there are two modes of insomnia as well, which describes the causes of insomnia:

Secondary insomnia means that you have insomnia as a direct result or symptom of something else, such as a health condition, medication, pain, substance abuse, etc. For example, depression can be an underlying cause for insomnia.

Primary insomnia means that your trouble sleeping is not directly related to some other underlying issue.

What is Shift Work

Someone who is a shift worker doesn't work typical hours and days. This means either working non-typical hours (8ish-5ish), working rotation work (changing shifts), or working many days on followed by many days off. Especially in Alaska, summer time means a large number of seasonal shift-work jobs.

Shift workers include:

• Pilots
• Construction workers
• Police workers
• Doctors and nurses
• Firefighters
• Taxi/Lyft/Uber drivers
• Customer service
• Retail

Shift work can be beneficial for several reasons: higher pay for less desirable shifts, flexibility with scheduling, and longer periods without work. However, shift work can also make it more challenging for these individuals to have normal sleep schedules. Please continue reading to learn more about what shift work sleep disorder is, and how to overcome it as a shift worker.

What Exactly is a Sleeping Pill

Sleeping pills are known as sedative hypnotics. They relax the mind and body in order to help one go to sleep. Those who struggle with getting a good night's sleep will often take them. Examples of sleeping medications include:

• Prescription medication, like ambien, Klonopin, etc.
• Over-the-counter aids like Benadryl, Tylenol-PM, and Advil-PM
• Antihistamines and antidepressants

For those with insomnia, sleeping aids can feel like a lifeline; almost as if they could never sleep without them. Although they are quite effective, they also come with hidden dangers. Specifically, individuals with untreated sleep apnea SHOULD NOT take sleeping aids. Sleep specialist Dr. Thomas Winkler said, “For my patients with untreated sleep apnea, I tell them [taking sleeping pills] is a bad idea.”

The sleep deprivation cycle is one that many struggle with chronically, essentially consisting of being sleep deprived for days followed by sleep binging, which leads to even more late nights and continued sleep deprivation. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle that commonly occurs during the week with sleep deprivation and "catch up" during the weekend. 

The opposite of the sleep deprivation cycle is consistent, sufficient sleep, as opposed to being deprived of sleep. Sleep deprivation is insidious, and can be result in a lower quality of life, lower expectancy, and decreased performance in every aspect of life. Breaking the cycle is important for overall life quality and health. Continue reading this blog post where we discuss a number of tips to help break this cycle.