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: Sleep-Getting Enough is Important For All
Ages
DEAR DR. PAUL: I am a grade one school teacher and
would like to know how much sleep children between six and seven
years old need. Thank you.
PEDIATRICIAN DR. PAUL Answers: Thanks for your question.
I would guess that the reason you ask for this information is
that you suspect your students may not be getting enough sleep.
Before giving you the exact number of sleep hours required, let
me briefly discuss the importance of sleep and signs of sleep
deprivation in kids and in adults as well. Being a parent is difficult
enough as we are faced with many challenges of raising and caring
for our children. Adding sleep deprivation makes the task all
that more difficult. So what I will be saying in this column applies
both to kids and to their parents too!
Sleep is important especially in growing and developing children.
Not only does sleep provide an opportunity for the body to physically
rest, it's the time during which, according to recent research,
a the brain consolidates or reinforces what a child has learned
or observed during the day. Not surprisingly, sleep deprived children
tend not to do well at school. Other symptoms of sleep deprivation
in children include the obvious ones such as fatigue, inattentiveness
and listlessness. There can also be less obvious symptoms including
irritability, impatience, fussiness and even aggressive behavior.
I think we have all experienced these feelings at one time in
our lives. Chronically sleep deprived children(and adults) experience
these daily.
Teenagers also need to get enough sleep. Just because they are
older does not mean they can get away with less sleep. In fact,
most adolescents actually get much less sleep than they need.
However, if you look at the amount of hours a teenager needs it
is almost as much as younger children. Staying up late a few nights
in a row and then trying to catch up on the weekend will not help.
In other words catch up sleep does not count. So, if on average,
one seems to get enough hours of sleep over say a week, but it
is done so by catching up to make up for nights of little or less
than adequate sleep, it will not work. What counts is getting
enough sleep each and every night.
Tragically, sleep deprivation has been the cause for many accidents
including the Exxon oil cargo ship crash. Unfortunately, many
highway accidents happen because a sleep deprived driver fell
asleep at the wheel. Although the amount tends to decrease with
age, still the average adult needs at least 8 to 8.5 hours of
sleep per night. Teenagers need at least 8.5 - 9.5 hours of sleep
while school age children need between 10 and 11 hours of sleep
nightly. Children less than 4 years of age need a daytime nap
as well. The message clearly is that we all need to get enough
sleep and this, regularly.
In response to your question I have created a chart which illustrates
the sleep requirements by age from 1 month to adulthood. Click
here to link to the sleep requirement chart. |
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The information provided in this site is
designed to be an educational aid only. It is not intended to
replace the advice and care of your child's physician, nor is
it intended to be used for medical diagnosis or treatment. If
you suspect that your child has a medical condition, always
consult a physician.
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