Sleep

Why is this a problem?.......◦ Studies of the three mile island nuclear reactor

meltdown, and the NASA challenge space shuttle accident indicate lost sleep as a contributing cause of car accidents

Lack of sleep!!

School age children need between 9-10 hours sleep/night

For each of the past 3 decades, children have lost ½ hour of sleep ( today’s children sleep an average of 90 mins less each night)

Children’s sleep is different from adults; children spend much more time in rapid eye movement ( REM), which is the dream stage of the sleep cycle

Infants who typically sleep up to 16 hours/day, spend half of that is REM sleep

How Lack of Sleep affects children...

REM sleep is crucial for brain activity; the brain is at least as active during the dream cycle as it is when a person is awake

This activity is related to neural plasticity ( the growth and change of brain cells) which occurs during REM sleep

REM sleep allows children to process information that they have encountered during the day

Because the length of the REM cycle increases as the night wears on, a shortened night of sleep means less time spent in REM sleep

Children 10-14 years of age were limited in their sleep to 5 hours/night

The next day both their abstract thinking and creativity ( as measured by standardized test) had decreased temporarily

USA Study:

For children 9-12 years old, reducing the child’s sleep by a single hour negatively affected his memory and reaction time on standardized tests

Israel Study:

If sleep deprivation happens frequently, the important brain development that needs to take place during childhood simply cannot happen

Today’s teens are thought to be the most sleep deprived among children because their sleep need is 9 hours/night, but they rarely get that.

Canada study ( 2003): 75% of teens sleep fewer than 8.5 hours/night

Italy Study ( 2001): direct connection identified between risk of injury and children sleeping less than 10 hrs/night

Connection also identified between inadequate sleep and hyperactivity

Loss of sleep often shows up as hyperactivity because children are trying hard to stimulate themselves to stay awake

Infants with sleep problems in early childhood are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD

USA study: survery of children 5-7 showed a high correlation between children who snored or had other sleep disturbances and those who had mild ADHD

Once sleep disturbances were eliminated, these children had noticeable increases in academic chievement

One main cause of poor sleep is childhood obesity

1 out of every 3 children, or 30% of American children are not regarded as clinically obese causing sleep apnea ( condition that causes people to temporarily stop breathing), hyperventilation, sleep disturbances

Other causes ( electronic diversions cause cognitive stimulation and engagement)

Vigorous exercising before bedtime Parents typically don’t recognize lack of sleep as a

serious health issue

Causes of lack of sleep.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLu2PwsYwRo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mXgJuL1drQ

Teens and sleephttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0wgMqv9x10

Teens and sleep part 2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-2-wQrI3eY&feature=relmfu