Young children get too little sleep, study suggests

A new study by the Bradley Hospital Sleep and Chronobiology Research Laboratory in Providence, Rhode Island suggests that very young children may not be getting enough sleep at night.

Adults can often deal with temporary lack of sleep by other methods, but for children, sleep deprivation can be a real problem.

The study followed 169 healthy children aged between one and five years of age, for up to seven days. Monitors (called actigraphs) were attached to the wrists or ankles to measure their activity, and parents kept sleep diaries.

On average, children slept for 8.7 hours, with younger children taking more naps during the day.

The study also showed differences in sleep patterns between children in different social groups, though neither were believed to be unhealthy.

Given the findings, parents with small children should be on the lookout for sleep deprivation in their kids, she advises. “We need to be very alert to watch for signs of sleepiness in children. I think both parents and teachers need to watch if their young child is yawning during the day or kind of falling asleep when they’re watching TV. That’s a sign that they’re not getting enough sleep.”

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