Many Irish school children and more than half of Irish teenagers are sleep deprived.  This affects their ability to learn and their mental health.  The time to set up good habits is before school starts – so start now. (By the way, studies also show that parents aren’t getting enough either so may be a good time to think about your habits as a family!)

Sleep

Let’s get right down to it:  How much does your family need?

• Infants 4 to 12 months need 12 to 16 hours (including naps), Toddlers 1 to 2 years need 11 to 14 hours (including naps)

• Children 3 to 5 years need 10 to 13 hours (including naps)

• Children 6 to 12 years need 9 to 12 hours

• Teens 13 to 18 years need 8 to 10 hours.

• Parents need — well, more than whatever it is you are getting, probably.  But the guidelines for adulthood are

  • Young adult (under 25) 7-9 (11 hours not uncommon!)

  • Adult 7-9 hours

  • 0ver 65s  7-8  hours (though range may be 5-9 hours in this age group)

Okay, but why do we need that much sleep?  

1.  Firstly, and let’s debunk myths:  Sleep is not a waste of time.  It’s really important.  Your body and brain are doing some important stuff while you are asleep so the heroic challenge to see how little sleep you can get by on isn’t healthy!

2. Lack of sleep isn’t just tired: Not getting enough sleep over time can affect memory and mood.  It can cause you to make more mistakes or feel more anxious.  It can also cause physical problems like headaches or disruption to stomach/bowels.

3. Sleep is the time when your body does some important housekeeping processes.  Some of the good stuff that happens while you are asleep:  Sleep helps with support healthy immune system, regulates blood pressure, increases insulin sensitivity, improves anxiety, enhances learning and memory, better cardiovascular stamina and recovery, better decision making, and better mood.

4. Fixing your sleep is worth it: You will spend 1/3 of your life asleep.  No one can go to sleep for you and there is no medication that can make you get good sleep. Yes, you read that right.  I’m a doctor; I prescribe tablets.  But sleeping tablets, short term only, are designed to help aid someone who has trouble falling asleep.  They can’t keep you asleep and they can’t substitute for natural, restorative sleep.

Mythbusting:

1. You can’t “catch up” on sleep over the weekend.  Don’t use a strategy of “catching up” to make up for the week.

2. Sleep supplements won’t help with sleep unless you do all the basics first (and likely don’t help that much anyway!  I don’t recommend them to my patients.) Also, supplements can’t replace actual sleep. 

Okay, so how do you set your family up for success?

Routine is key.

Try these consistently over next 2 weeks to start to see a difference – (btw:  sleep routines aren’t just for kids!)

• • Set a bedtime, set a wake time. Stick to it. Weekend “sleep ins” should only be about 1 hour later than normal wake time.

  • Eat breakfast soon after your wake time and include some carbs! Open those blinds or step outside to get early morning light. Don’t check your phone first thing when waking. (We will be talking more about breakfast and lunchs later in this week’s series!)

  • Trouble falling asleep? Eat dinner earlier and avoid evening snacking

  • Reduce caffeine 3 hours before bedtime and eliminate alcohol.  For children and teens, consider eliminating or reducing to minimal amounts of energy, sugary, or fizzy drinks.  Teens and Caffeine

  • Make sure you are getting a good amount of physical activity (I will be talking more on that later in this week’s series.)

  • Avoid naps in adults; limit power naps to around 20 minutes

  • Bedtime routine: warm bath, reduced lights, quiet relaxing activity. The wind-down before bed may take 1 hour.  For children, introduce a bedtime routine.  Include anything that isn’t a screen.  This is an excellent time for bath, bedtime story, and any practice that gives them a chance to express an anxiety (worry dolls, journaling, fairy doors, etc.) or end the day on a positive note.  Read more here about gratitude practice at bedtime.

  • Sleep hygiene: Cool, dark, quiet bed only used for sleep (not homework).  Get the screens – including TV, tablets, and phone out of the bedroom (that blue light filter thing?  Doesn’t really work.)  It is highly recommended by experts that phones and internet-enable devices are not in child/teen bedrooms, especially overnight.  I routinely counsel my patients to consider a central charging point in a common area of the home for all devices overnight, and/or nightly WiFi curfew (shut it off) to prevent notifications buzzing and dinging all night in the home. (There are a number of other good reasons besides sleep to get phones out of your teens bedroom at night.)

  • Bedwetting:  If your child is having trouble with bedwetting, talk to your GP or PHN.  Also, you can get expert advice you can trust from ERIC.

Having trouble more than just occasionally? Talk to your doctor – and not about sleeping tablets.  There are medical problems that can affect sleeping including: pain, restless legs syndrome, stress/anxiety, frequently waking to urinate, night sweats, medication side effects. It is estimated that as many as 80% of patients with sleep apnoea are undiagnosed!