Kids' Sleep Requirements

A study about how much sleep children need came out recently in the news, and apparently sparked a controversy among sleep researchers! The science still seems to indicate that children ages 5-12 should get 10-11 hours of sleep every 24 hours, and that getting less than that can have a wide range of consequences, including negative effects on learning, attention, mood, and behavior.


Here is a link to an interview with a an expert about the study that came out a few days ago and started the debates. She offers several websites and books for more information. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/02/14/146881838/how-much-sleep-do-kids-need-not-such-a-mystery-after-all


Here is a detailed page on children's sleep requirements: http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/children-and-sleep


Here is a Harvard Medical School website on sleep: http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/portal/


If you want to read more, a great book on this subject is Sleepless in America by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. I really enjoyed it and learned alot. The author does a great job of  offering suggestions that can fit different families and different schedules.

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