Thursday, 27 January 2011
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Poor Childhood Sleep Habits Increase Risk of Mental Illness as Adults
My husband recently forwarded me an article from the Wall Street Journal, giving me another reason to be grateful for my choice to sleep train my kids when they were infants. Of course, when back in the day, my motivation was more about the fact that if I didn't get sleep, there could be an incident that warranted my children being forcibly removed from my care.I love my sleep and, when interrupted, suffice it to say that I am not the most pleasant person to be around. Having a new baby that didn't sleep through the night could have been disaster for me.
The article entitled, "Grown Up Problems Start at Bedtime" by Andrea Peterson, touts that kids who don't sleep enough are at a greater risk for anxiety and depression as adults. That caught my attention. But, more than that, it's not only infant sleeping habits, but sleeping habits throughout their childhood years, even through teenagedom.
Don't stress though. This article is talking about kids with chronic sleep problems, not just the occasional I-don't-want-to-go-to-bed routine. For instance, children who persistently have trouble falling or staying asleep and those who don't get enough nighttime sleep.
Some studies show that:
- Kids who had sleep problems at "12 to 14 years old were more than two times as likely to have suicidal thoughts at ages 15 to 17 as those who didn't have sleep problems at the younger age".
- "Children whose mothers reported that they were overtired when 3 to 8 years old were 2.8 times as likely to binge drink when they were 18 to 20 years old."
- "46% of those who were considered to have a persistent sleep difficulty at age 9 had an anxiety disorder at age 21 or 26." (compared to 33% of those who didn't have difficulty sleeping)
Lest this worry you, the studies were taken from a relatively small sampling of children and scientists caution that general research on this subject is still in its early stages.
So, how much sleep SHOULD our kids be getting? According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine its:
- Infants: 14 to 15 hours
- Toddlers: 12 to 14 hours
- Preschoolers: 11 to 13 hours
- School-age kids: 10 to 11 hours
- Teenagers: 9 to 10 hours
Why the great concern then? In some other research by the National Sleep Foundation, highlighted by this article, polls showed that:- 13% of school-age children have difficulty falling asleep at bedtime
- 26% of preschoolers seem sleepy or overtired during the day at least a few days a week
- About 45% of adolescents ages 11 to 17 get less than eight hours of sleep a night
- More than one-quarter of high-school kids fall asleep in school at least once a week
Though the research is still in progress, we, as parents are quite aware that, when our own kids don't get enough sleep, they are NOT fun to deal with. So, what are some ways we can help address sleep issues? The article gave a few helpful suggestions:
- Set a regular bedtime and wake time, even on weekends.
- Make the bedroom a dark and quiet oasis for sleep. No homework in bed.
- Create a calming bedtime routine. For younger kids: a bath and story. For older kids: Reading or listening to mellow music.
- Limit caffeine consumption, especially after 4 p.m.
- Ban technology (TV, Web surfing, texting) in the half hour before bed. The activities are stimulating. The light from a computer can interfere with the production of the sleep-promoting hormone, melatonin.
- Don't send kids to bed as punishment or allow them to stay up late as a reward for good behavior. This delivers a negative message about sleep.
- Help kids review happy moments from the day. Have them imagine a TV with a 'savoring channel.' Relegate anxious thoughts to 'a worry channel.'
Some of these are things that I know and practice already. Others, like the fact that texting and computer activity before bedtime are stimulating, hadn't entered my mind, but are really food for thought. Honestly, these recommendations don't sound too difficult to accomplish (minus the teenage protest factor). In fact, I think I might even try them on myself!
Have your kids had chronic problems with sleep? Have you had success in combating these issues? What methods did you use? Did you find the suggestions in the article helpful? Or did it just add to your frustration?
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About the Author
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- From: chelleannette@xanga
- About Me: I'm an almost 40 mother of three teenagers, two crazy fat dogs and one husband. I live in and love New York City. In the last five years or so I've taken up French, shooting for eventual fluency and possibly picking up one day with the man after the kids are gone and moving it all to France. I also learned how to play tennis in the last few years and have, consequently become obsessed with the sport and acquired the delusion of playing on the WTA seniors tour or in a grand slam (Watch out Serena!) Living passionately, I want to see, smell, taste and feel the world through relationships, travel, food and whatever else life throws at me. Still waiting to discover what I want to be when I grow up!
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Comments (9)
This is why I'd never sleep train my kids to be honest. Sleep training includes FORCING your child to be awake...leading to over-tiredness. I also will never force my child to wake up unless it is a dire emergency due to his parasomnia disorder...which he comes by
genetically. He does have a bedtime, because it helps with his issues.
I've had insomnia since I was 8 years old...and I was sleep trained.
Forcing a child to sleep, or letting them cry it out isn't going to help any. If they are forced to sleep, they're just going to wake up in a shorter amount of time, causing interrupted sleep patterns. If they're left to CIO....they're going to cry instead of sleep...
This just doesn't make any sense at all the be honest.
Just because a child has bedtime doesn't mean they're tired. Even if they lay in bed quietly they're not sleeping. Then you're forcing them to wake up before they've gotten enough sleep...so they're not getting all the sleep they need.
I'm all for limiting stimulation though. And there is nothing wrong with easing a child into a schedule, or even waking them up earlier to get them to go to bed earlier. That isn't sleep training though. Sleep training is FORCING your child to sleep via CIO. Its counter productive. To everything mentioned here. CIO does indeed cause brain damage, elevated blood pressure, and accelerated heart rate.
I would argue there are different kinds of sleep training. I love the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, which deals with the exact problems addressed by the Wall Street Journal Article. Teaching children to have healthy sleep is not necessarily dictating when and how they sleep, but rather recognizing their sleep cues before they get overtired.
I have a four month old. I watch for when she gets tired (but before she starts crying), and that's when I put her down for a nap. this means she's only ever awake for about an hour, because that's how long she personally stays awake. I never let her CIO, but I did guide her towards certain sleep times/habits, and at times I would let some controlled crying happen, if I knew all her needs were met (I'd let her cry for 5 minutes, go check on her, comfort her, cry for 10 minutes, maybe I'd nurse her to help her calm down, etc.). It's taken months of being vigilant about watching her sleep cues and some trial and error, but we finally have something of a schedule of going to bed at 8pm, eating at midnight, eating at 5am and waking up again at 8am. then she naps and eats throughout the day as best as I can tell when she's sleepy.
I think it's important to help your child become a healthy sleeper, and I certainly don't think it always happens automatically through their own schedule. With all of that said, I think it's important to understand your own child. When my daughter was 2 months old, we went through a phase where she really, really wanted to sleep with me at night. It just seemed like she needed the additional comfort. So we co-slept for 6 weeks or so, until I noticed that it seemed like maybe she didn't need me as much, and now she sleeps in her own bed in her own room at night. I watched for what she needed, but I also guided her to a preferable schedule (for our family, at least... I have nothing against co-sleeping, just not a huge fan of it myself).
Again, I think Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child is a great book that addresses the concern of over-tiredness and the developmental importance of healthy sleep habits. It also addresses co-sleeping parents and those against any sort of CIO method.
My niece doesn't have any sleep training what so ever. Its so hard to put her to sleep because she's very hype during the day and during the night. She's almost never tired, and sleep so little. I don't get it. She's only two years old.
I'm totally guilty of using bed as a punishment. But, usually when I do send my kid to bed it's because his behavior is bordering out of control and we're done for the day (never before 6:30). And, when I do that, he's usually asleep within 10 minutes so his behavior is tired related. Other than that, I get so tired of people saying that their kid doesn't need as much sleep so they purposely skip naps when it's obvious their child is beyond exhausted...*sigh*
I'm not sure I really agree with this. Especially the part about how long each age group should be sleeping. Some people don't need 9-10 hours of sleep, and having that much sleep can actally hinder their performance in school, work, and extra curricular activities.
To me this makes sense. I have had horrible sleeping patterns all long as I can remember and I’m sure it hasn’t been the best thing for me.
My 3.5 month old inherited my fight against sleep. I hate it. He hates it. But we both are light sleepers who cannot seem to go to sleep easily or quickly. He still has yet to sleep through the night… or at least make it past 5 hours of sleep. Maybe sleeping from 1 am to just before 6 is sleeping through the night, but I don’t really consider it to be.
I have tried looking for his sleeping cues. I know what they are but he cannot go to sleep without me holding him. I’ve tried this “controlled crying” bit but when he starts crying he does not stop. Even when I pick him up and try to comfort him he is pissed. Once he finally does calm down he is magically catches a second wind and is ready to play… even if he’s been up for 3 or 4 hours. During the day he catnaps and honestly I hold him most of the time. I know when I put him down he is going to wake up in 10 minutes or so, and I feel bad because I know he needs the sleep. At night I’ve tried to get a bedtime routine down but my fiancé does not have a set time he comes home because of his weird work hours and that interrupts our son’s schedule. I feel happy when he gets more than 12 hours a day.
His pediatrician doesn’t seem too worried about it and still pushes for me to put him in his crib each time, but I am worried he won’t get enough sleep.
So. Suicidal thoughts for me?
I find it really hard to sleep, but I don't have insonomia. [Sorry for bad spelling].
I do get tired, and frustrated easily, particularly lately.
It's not just 'get in bed, head on pillow, sleep'.
It's more like 'get in bed, roll around, check time, roll around, get up, get into bed, roll some more, followed by rolling, slight doze, wake up, roll around.. sleep.' and sometimes, wake up serval times after that.
I'll admit, I do self-harm.. but.. death scares me.
Wow this explains everything. When I was an infant I didn't sleep all day like most babies I slept like 8 hours and had a light nap in the day. I've always had trouble sleeping ( my entire extended family does too), its why I'm awake now posting on this haha. I started to develop depression and anxiety around age 9. Maybe sleep my sleep is the reason for my depression. Who knew!
my question is, what if its because the child carries the genes that contribute to depression and anxiety, and the sleep problems are early warning signs/symptoms? i dont think the research said "sleep problems CAUSE depression and anxiety", it just states that the two have a correlation. which means we dont know what the cause is. in fact it could be a third, unknown element that causes both sleep problems AND those disorders
just so you know, its established that anxiety and depression are linked--it is established that if a family member, especially a parent, has either of those, the children are more likely to get either of those. meaning if the parent had anxiety, it would raise the chance of the kids having depression AND/OR anxiety, so it seems that the same gene can manifest in either or even both of those disorders.