Importance of sleep quality for your children

One of parenting's great ironies: kids need a lot of sleep, it's almost always the last thing they want to do, and almost no child goes to bed or naps without a fuss.

While you may feel frustrated and ready to throw in the towel and let them stay up, it's essential for your children to get quality sleep to grow and develop healthily.

Despite sleep's importance for kids (and the fact that children should ideally spend about 40% of their early years sleeping), many public health officials are concerned about childhood sleep deprivation. Some have even called the state of childhood sleeplessness an epidemic and recommend parents and pediatricians make sleep a higher priority. They believe this will support your child's development in many ways.

Healthy Growth

One of the most obvious benefits of quality sleep for kids is that sleep, especially deep sleep, is essential for healthy growth. The majority of human growth hormone is secreted during the deepest stages of sleep, so without enough sleep, children risk not growing at an appropriate rate. This stunted growth doesn't always affect height either: insufficient growth can also hinder the development of your child's heart and lungs. Ideally, children should spend about half their sleep time in the deepest sleep stages to ensure proper growth and development.

Reduced Risk of Illness and Obesity

Just like adults, children need plenty of sleep to stay healthy, both for maintaining a strong immune system and a healthy body weight. Researchers have linked childhood obesity to lack of sleep and believe it's connected to the secretion of the hunger hormone, ghrelin. When we don't get enough sleep, the body produces more of this hormone, which helps control appetite. This can in turn contribute to overeating and cravings for sugary, high-carb foods. While sleep won't turn your kids into vegetable lovers overnight, it will help them learn to regulate their own appetite as they grow. Not to mention that when kids are tired, they're less active, so they burn fewer calories, contributing to weight gain.

Better Attention Span

Kids aren't exactly known for their long, natural attention spans, but when they're sleep-deprived, they're even less able to focus for extended periods. And research shows that when children consistently sleep less than ten hours per night before age three, they're three times more likely to be diagnosed with an attention, hyperactivity, or impulse control disorder by age six.

The problem, of course, is that many signs and symptoms of these disorders mimic those of sleep deprivation, including being easily distracted and impulsive. This means some children may be misdiagnosed when they really need more sleep. In fact, studies have shown that sleeping just 27 extra minutes per night can help kids focus better at school and control their impulses. So it's important to ensure your children get enough sleep each night and rule out any sleep issues when working on behavioral questions.

Improved Learning

Improved attention span goes hand-in-hand with learning. So it's no surprise that children who get plenty of sleep have an easier time learning and retaining information. During sleep, the brain processes new information, making connections between what's already stored in neural pathways and creating new memories. Even in very young babies, the brain is extremely active during sleep; some neurologists even suggest that babies' movements during sleep indicate the child's nervous system is teaching the brain how it's connected to muscles and how the body functions. In older children, researchers have found that well-rested kids retain more information, and for longer, than those who are sleep-deprived, who forget at least 15% of what they learn when they don't rest.

Perhaps most importantly, developing good sleep habits in your children now will help them prioritize and adopt good sleep hygiene throughout their lives. To help your child get quality sleep,

Tips for a Good Night's Sleep

Determine how much sleep is needed. Talk to your doctor about how much sleep your child needs; on average, infants need 9 to 12 hours per day, including naps, while toddlers should get 11 to 14 hours of sleep. School-age children need 9 to 11 hours of sleep per night, while teens and young adults should aim for 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night.

Establish bedtime routines. If your child is still a baby, establish a regular bedtime routine each night. Maintaining a consistent bedtime and a "wind-down" routine that prepares kids for sleep can help reduce anxiety and resistance to sleep and ensure they get enough rest.

For an older child, a nice duvet cover featuring their favorite heroes and hobbies can help create positive associations with their bed and reduce bedtime friction.

Watch for signs of sleep problems. Many children have trouble falling asleep, have nightmares or night terrors, or suffer from other issues like bedwetting or sleepwalking. If your child seems to have difficulty falling and staying asleep, talk to your pediatrician.