Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
-James M. Barrie
A Huffington Post article, "What We've Learned About Kids And Sleep In 2015" provided these observations:
- Sleep is when the brain flushes out, which is especially critical for kids — during sleep the brain cleanses itself, essentially flushing out its own waste.
- Uninterrupted nighttime rest is particularly vital for kids, because the growth hormone needed for tissue and muscle development is produced mainly overnight, especially from midnight to 6 a.m.
- The National Sleep Foundation’s guidelines on how long children of different ages should snooze are clear: 10 to 13 hours per day for preschoolers, nine to 11 for kids between ages 6 and 13, and eight to 10 hours for teens.
- Lack of sleep can lead to misdiagnoses of ADHD.
- Sleep debt puts kids at higher risk for obesity and diabetes.
- Sleep debt can make kids more likely to get sick.
Contributed by Kirsten Haugen
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Comments (1)
Displaying 1 CommentCSBC
Denver, CO, United States
When my children attended a child care center we had two continual fights with them: TV (we said no), and nap-time (we also said no, because when our children took naps, they did not sleep at night). Like everything else, there are individual differences in the need for sleep. Further, I am not a fan of the National Sleep Foundation's advice on children and sleep, as they believe in isolation and a very behavioral, non-nurturing approach. Finally, the fact that lack of sleep "causes misdiagnosis of ADHD" is an indictment on how we diagnose ADHD (for example, one risk factor is being a boy; another a minority), not advice regarding sleeping!
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