Don’t blame modern life — kids have never gotten enough sleep, new study finds
February 13, 2012
Comments on this story
(3)
Kristin Rushowy
EDUCATION REPORTER
Worried your kids don’t get enough sleep?
You're not alone — parents and experts over the past 100-plus years have had the same concerns, say researchers at the University of South Australia who found that even in the 1900s the “hustle and bustle of modern life” and the stimulation of new technology — meaning the radio — was believed to be interfering with kids’ zzzzz’s.
“(It was) fascinating that the rationale for sleep recommendations was also so consistent for more than 100 years: Children were overtaxed by the stimulation of modern living, the ‘stimulation’ being whatever technology was ‘in’ at the time — schoolbooks, radio, television, Internet,” said Lisa Anne Matricciani, lead author of a study published Monday by Pediatrics.
The authors looked at expert advice starting in the late 1800s and found that sleep recommendations went down roughly 0.71 minutes a year from 1897 to 2009.
“The rate of decline is almost identical to the decline in actual sleep duration of children, about 0.73 minutes per year,” says the study. That’s roughly an hour and 15 minutes over a century.
Co-author Tim Olds said researchers were surprised to find that “recommendations always exceeded actual sleep by 37 minutes.”
A 5-year-old, for example, in 1897 was thought to need 14 hours of sleep; today, anywhere from 10.5 to 11 hours.
Olds said while experts do continue to suggest optimal sleep times, there is no real evidence of how much is best.
“Parents shouldn’t stress too much about particular sleep targets,” he said. But they should avoid “yo-yo sleeping,” which he defined as “short sleeps on school days and big catch-up sleeps on Friday and Saturday nights.”
For Toronto parents Allen and Kay Shen, making sure their three young children get enough rest has been a priority.
“My wife (Kay) did all the training, she was very intentional about that — all of them were sleeping the night at two or three months (of age),” said Allen Shen.
Now Kara, 5, and Everett, 4, go to sleep around 9-9:30 p.m., “which is later than we’d like them to” because all three still nap during the day. The youngest, 2-year-old Gideon, is in bed by 7:30-8 p.m.
“We usually have some fruit, and read books — we always read to them — then it’s time for a Bible story, and then we have a time of family prayer,” he said.
Gideon is the first awake, usually around 7 a.m., and the others are up half an hour later.
Olds, himself a father of two, said he can’t comment on his teens’ sleeping habits.
“I don’t know how much sleep they get,” he said, “because I go to bed before them.”
While there will always be new technologies to cause concern, Matricciani said the light and glare from computer and cellphones screens have been shown to influence sleep and “that deserves more attention” from researchers.