How do childhood sleep disorders affect health and well-being?

Insomnia, the inability to fall asleep or frequent awakening, is estimated to affect around 25% of children and teenagers. Obstructive sleep apnea - when an individual stops breathing for long periods during sleep - affects around 2-4% of children.

According to recently updated recommendations from the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), the number of hours sleep children and adolescents need is as follows:

• Newborns (0-3 months): 14-17 hours a day
• Infants (4-11 months): 12-15 hours
• Toddlers (1-2 years): 11-14 hours
• Preschoolers (3-5 years): 10-13 hours
• School-age (6-13 years): 9-11 hours
• Teenagers (14-17 years): 8-10 hours.

However, it seems many children and teenagers are failing to meet sleep recommendations.

A 2014 poll from the NSF, which asked parents to estimate how much sleep their child gets on a school night, found that children aged 6-10 are only getting around 8.9 hours sleep a night, while 13-14-year-olds are only getting around 7.7 hours sleep each night.

More recently, MNT reported on a study published in the journal Pediatrics revealing that the number of hours teenagers sleep each night has declined over the past 20 years.

The study, which involved more than 270,000 adolescents, found that 72% of 15-year-olds were getting at least 7 hours or sleep each night in 1991, but this fell to only 63% in 2012.

Why is lack of sleep among children and adolescents a public health concern?

Sleep deprivation can cause a number of health problems for children and adolescents, both in childhood and adulthood.

In 2011, a study published in The BMJ claimed that children who do not get enough sleep are at significantly higher risk of becoming overweight, compared with children who get sufficient sleep.

Another study published in The Journal of Pediatrics in December 2014 reported a similar finding, associating severe lack of sleep and sleep-disordered breathing in early childhood with increased risk of obesity.

The researchers found that children with the shortest sleep time at the ages of 5 and 6 years were at 60-100% increased risk of obesity by the age of 15, compared with children with sufficient sleep times.

Past studies have also associated sleep apnea in children with delayed growth and heart failure.

Besides, lack of sleep and poor sleep quality has been associated with poor learning and educational attainment among children and adolescents.

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