photo credit: lepiaf.geo

As parents, you are responsible for ensuring that your children get enough sleep. The recommended total hours of sleep are as follows:

• Infants (2 months to 12 months)        14 – 15 hours
• Toddlers (12 months to 3 years)         12 – 14 hours
• Preschoolers (3 years to 6 years)       11 – 13 years
• School-aged (6 years to 12 years)       10 – 11 years
• Adolescents (12 years to 18 years)     8.5 – 9.5 hours

When your child does not get sufficient sleep, some of the consequences are:

• It affects the mood where the child is more moody and irritable.
• It affects learning where the child has more difficulty in focusing, solving problems and remembering things.
• It affects behavior where the child is more prone to be aggressive, hyperactive and misbehave.
• If affects health where it disrupts function as well as increases the risks of accidental injuries.

Sleeping myths abound about how and why we sleep. It is important to learn the proper and correct facts. Some of the common myths about sleep are:

#1: Not getting sufficient sleep will not really hurt you in the long run.
Fact: There are a lot of proofs showing that, over time, the lack of sleep is detrimental to a child’s mental and physical health as already mentioned above.

#2: Some children do not need very much sleep.
Fact: Research results show that the average adult requires at least 8 hours of sleep to perform at his best.

#3: Children can be trained or get used to getting less sleep.
Fact: The amount of sleep needed is “hard-wired” or programmed into our genes and cannot be altered.

#4: The lost of sleep during the weekdays can be made up over the weekend by sleeping longer.
Fact: Not getting enough sleep means you accumulate a “sleep debt” which you need to repay eventually. During this period however, the child will experience all the bad effects of being sleep deprived.

#5: Oversleeping can make a child feel more tired.
Fact: It is natural for a child to awaken from a very deep sleep sometimes feeling disoriented, confused and groggy. This condition is known as sleep inertia.

#6: It is alright for teenagers to “pull an all-nighter” for a big test the next morning.
Fact: A person’s concentration is negatively affected after being awake 15-16 hours straight. Teenagers are better off getting sufficient sleep and studying less in this case.

Do you know that studies have shown that 16 – 30 year olds are the highest risk group for drowsy-driving. Sleepiness and sometimes combine with alcohol consumption increases the risk of a drowsy-driving accident from happening.

For more information, refer to the following resources:

http://www.sleepeducation.com
http://www.aasmnet.org
http://www.sleepresearchsociety.org
http://www.sleepfoundation.org