The importance of quality sleep for children cannot be overstated. It is crucial to fuel active brain development, physical growth and emotional regulation. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommends 11 to 14 hours per day for 3- to 5-year-olds, nine to 12 hours per day for 6- to 12-year-olds and eight to 10 hours a day for adolescents. Dr. Thomas Fitzgerald shares how parents can ensure children are getting the amount and quality of sleep they need to fuel their active lifestyles, academic success and emotional development.
How can parents ensure their children are getting the right amount and quality of sleep for a restorative night?
Keeping a regular sleep schedule regardless of weekday or weekend, school or vacation, is important. Deviating more than 1 to 2 hours can be disruptive and hard to adjust back from in a timely manner.
Sleep hygiene recommendations:
- Regular sleep schedule for every day
- Age-appropriate, good-quality sleep every night
- Avoid naps for children [older than] 6 years old.
- 20– 30-minute calming bedtime
- No electronics/screentime one hour before bed
- No caffeine six hours before bed
- Use your bed for sleeping only.
- Avoid eating/drinking large amounts of food within one hour of bedtime.
- Increase or add daytime exercise/movement.
- Avoid vigorous exercise one to two hours before bedtime.
- Keep a quiet, dark, cool sleep environment for sleeping.
- Try relaxation exercises.
How does sleep affect child development, healthy cognitive function and growth?
Sleep is essential in childhood for physical and neurodevelopment, including memory consolidation, mood regulation, vocabulary and language comprehension.
The restoration provided by sleep helps maintain appropriate hormonal regulation, cardiovascular health, and supports the immune system. Additionally, we have higher levels of hunger hormones with sleep deprivation, which can increase appetite and weight gain. Chronic poor sleep can also be associated with increased accident and injury risk, hypertension, obesity, diabetes and depression.
How is cognitive function and learning retention affected by the amount and quality of sleep?
The effects of sleep deprivation in children often result in kids getting more hyperactive, frustrated, emotional and impulsive. It’s important as parents to realize that you may be able to handle an intense schedule on limited sleep, but your children may not.
Studies have shown that children reporting insufficient sleep performed worse on working memory tasks and showed impairment in school performance, especially academic achievement, emotion regulation and attention. Even modest changes of approximately one hour over a few days can have measurable effects on performance.
Typically, the more sleep deprivation, the worse the outcomes. Missing sleep — even an hour or two — can be counterproductive for performance-based activities like tests, and increase the chance of accidents when driving.
Remaining active, maintaining daytime light exposure and taking short naps can help maintain function if sleep-deprived until the following night. Overall, the recovery process is likely slow and more complex than we might first think.
How can parents transition sleep patterns from summer to [the] school year to help ensure kids are getting the right amount and quality of sleep for the school day?
When school starts, it is very hard to move bedtimes back earlier and wake up earlier all at once. Starting earlier helps allow for a smoother transition. About a month before school starts, move bedtimes back by about 15 minutes every night to get to an appropriate sleep time for that specific child.
Thomas Fitzgerald, D.O.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatric Pulmonologist and Sleep Medicine Specialist
Thomas Fitzgerald, D.O., is a board-certified pediatric pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist at the University of Maryland Golisano Children’s Hospital in Baltimore and an assistant professor of pediatrics in the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Division of Pulmonology, Allergy and Sleep Medicine. His expertise is in pediatric respiratory sleep disorders and technology-dependent children.
