Children don’t sleep enough
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006I was reading this article today at lunch that highlighted the lack of sleep in children and teenagers. Obviously as parents we have a lack of understanding on what’s required for kids, too. The article was saying that most parents felt that their child was getting enough sleep at night but the child felt like he wasn’t getting enough sleep. I can tell you that my oldest sleeps for about 9 hours and my youngest sleeps for about 10 hours. (Sam really thinks he might need to head to bed earlier since he’s recently hit a growth spurt and seems more tired than normal.) Anyway, most kids their ages are sleeping 7-8 hours. That’s just crazy! And worse, starting in middle school (about 11/12 years old) kids are sleeping less and less til they’re only sleeping 5-7 hours per night by the time they’re 16. I just can’t imagine. I mean, I know I did it my junior/senior years because I was working on items for school and I had Sam to take care of, but for the average teenager, maybe sleep should be a higher priority. All these teenagers out there drinking coffee to stay awake just kills me. Of course, I guess it would help if I was a coffee drinker. Maybe I’d have more sympathy. Instead, I sleep and try limit my usual soda intake to 2 cans a day. I wonder if there’s some studies online that could tell me what adults’ sleeping habits are. That would be pretty interesting to read.
