Get Some Sleep
By: Keith
In the interest of getting stuff done I sometimes stay up past my bedtime. I know I’m going to pay for it eventually, but sometimes there is no choice; I have to work. Adults can get away with that sort of thinking – for a little while. We can do it because our brains are fully developed and they bounce back to pre sleep-deprived status after enough rest. Sure, productivity slips and the effort required to get even simple tasks done increases exponentially with every passing hour past bedtime. But, it can be done. That is not the case with kids. Kids who don’t get enough sleep risk serious developmental issues. Sleep deprivation in kids has been linked to lower IQ, obesity and ADD. How to ensure our kids are getting enough sleep is, in theory, really easy. Let them sleep until they wake up. Let them nap when they need to nap. Here comes the research.
The Research:
Dr. Avi Sadeh at Tel Aviv University has done research into the affects of sleep deprivation on school aged kids. In one of his more eye opening experiments he sent 77 4th graders and 6th graders home with random instructions. Half of the kids (randomly selected) were told to go to bed half an hour later than usual and the other half were told to turn in half an hour earlier ( 1 hour difference). The children were each given actigraph units which electronically measure real sleeping time. The prep lasted 3 days and, at the end of those three days, the kids were given a version of the Wechsler IQ test. The results showed that one hour difference in sleep is equivalent to 2 grade levels of neural biological functioning. 6th graders with one less sleep than usual performed at the level of 4th graders! Not only that but the research indicates that the effects of sleep deprivation can be cumulative and irreversible if left unchecked through adolescence.
Another test was done by the University of Minnesota’s Dr. Kyla Wahlstrom who found that Minnesota high schoolers with A averages in school averaged 15 more minutes of sleep than the their C level peers. An identical test was done by Brown University of 3,000 Rhode Island high schoolers in which the results were the same. It’s hard to believe that 15 minutes can make much difference. Two separate studies say it does make a difference, a big difference.
Obesity:
Television is not to blame for obesity despite everything we’ve been told. The University of Texas at Austin and Dr. Elizabeth Vanderwater did some digging and found an ongoing survey by the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The survey has followed 8,000 families since 1968 and clearly shows that obese kids watch no more television than their more fit counterparts. Vanderwater states that media “… is not the smoking gun we assumed it to be.” Instead, she found something else. While studying the data she discovered that kids who weren’t watching TV weren’t getting any more physical activity than those who were. In other words, when not watching television kids are doing something else that is equally sedentary. In fact, kids watch only 7 minutes more television today on average than they did in the 1970′s. It’s time management that is making kids fat, not television. Less sleep is to blame.
The big leap in obesity rates in kids happened in the mid 80′s. And, the research shows that the culprit is not video games or television. It’s lack of sleep. Kids trade sleep time for sedentary activities and the result is that kids who get less than 8 hours of sleep per night have a 300% higher rate of obesity than those kids who get 8 or more hours. It’s a snowballing problem because people who don’t sleep enough also don’t have the energy to exercise.
The research is clear. Sleep is important for cognitive functioning as well as controlling obesity. The solution, while apparently simple, is not as easy as putting kids to bed earlier. We need to cut down on their structured activities and school obligations and give them more freedom to relax and sleep. It might seem counter intuitive that less school work could result in better grades, but if schoolwork is getting in the way of sleep then that is exactly the conclusion I am making. On the other hand, if video games or sitting around doing nothing like a big fat slob are getting in the way of sleep then those things need to be adjusted. The danger though with having kids too active is that they won’t be able to decompress from the day to actually get the required sleep. My solution is fewer activities and obligations. The results of that should be less stress and more sleep, but that’s just my interpretation of the data. Either way we slice it we know that our kids need their sleep.
Read Nurture Shock by Po Bronson for a complete list of research and notes.
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Wow– this is brutally bad on the cascading effects of not enough sleep for kids. Perhaps this explains why some adults are the way they are.
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This is really informative. And makes a lot of sense. So many parents have their kids slotted into constant activity, and homework loads often have kids working very late into the night. Of course they’re getting less sleep.
And adults need to be careful as well. We are getting by on smaller doses of sleep – often with serious consequences. And I’m not talking about those with diagnosed sleep disorders, but I’m talking about those sleep-deprived parents (regardless of reason) who are more prone to accidents at home, impatience, irritability and over time a host of other problems.
Sleep loss is a huge issue in our culture – certainly for our kids. And for adults.
Great post.
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Wolf, you just brought up another facet of the argument that is totally relevant. Another study done found that adults who get 6 hours of sleep per night for one week function at the same level as someone who has gone 24 hours without sleep. That means all those people who say they’re just fine with 6 hours really aren’t. Imagine how much more productive they’d be with more. Thanks!
This is a eye-opener!
Interesting studies! They remind me of one I heard about a while back on “Sleep Debt.” Have you heard of that before? It’s an interesting concept. Just type ‘sleep debt’ into wikipedia if you’re not sure what I’m talking about. I’m pretty sure I’m way in the red (probably more so than the federal deficit!) LOL
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Brian, I have experienced this sleep debt myself, and I think I can sympathize. This past week I have found myself craving slightly more than 8 hours per night. I think my body is trying to make up for a cumulative deficit. Thanks for commenting!
The last study you quote is way of the mark in my opinion. Does Having studied diet for several years I can tell you that activity levels are as about important in obesity levels as this study suggests time in front of the TV is. The energy in – energy out equation is way too simple and misleading and the one thing that these studies ignore is the fact that hormones affect not only how we process and/or store energy but also how much sleep, move and eat. The main hormone we’re talking about here is insulin which not only affects several other hormones but is also responsible for fat storage and increased hunger among other things. The main macronutrient that increases our insulin levels is carbohydrate. And the big change in our diet since the 70′s has been the increase of sugar/carbohydrate so that they make up the larger percentage of macronutrients in our diets (which also coincides with increased obesity and type 2 diabetes since the 80s). I will try to find you the study that showed that by decreasing the amount of carbohydrates in a child’s diet they began to spontaneously exercise and move about more. I’ve suggested before that you read ‘Good Calories Bad Calories’ by Gary Taubes and I suggest it again so that you can get an idea that these studies are looking in the wrong place and making misleading information sound convincing.
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Thanks Clint for the comment. The purpose of the studies was to correlate obesity with sleep in some way, not to tangentially deviate into nutrition and insulin production. There is, undeniably, a correlation between sleep deprivation and obesity. I can concede that it isn’t as simple as that though. What you say about hormones and insulin is absolutely right. I wouldn’t call these studies misleading though because nutritious was not the focus, sleep was. There is another chapter in the book about nutrition where the author talks a bit about other factors that contribute to obesity. I’m sure that will be more revealing when I get there. I defer the nutritional expertise to you
That’s clearly your thing!