Blog Posts 1–5, based on the United States of America Department of the Army Field Manual: Holistic Healing and Fitness, describe what really matters for your child’s sleep. If sleep is an important enough topic for national defense than surely sleep should be considered a serious topic for parenting!
A 2023 study on children about 10 years old examined the effects of experimental sleep restriction of 1 hour and sleep extension of 1 hour. This study is notable because the researchers objectively measured the actual sleep (actigraphy) and did not rely on the parents’ or children’s reports. In this randomized clinical trial, the outcome measure was the ‘Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL). The HRQOL encompasses 3 main domains: physical, mental, and social health.
Children were asked to go to bed 1 hour earlier than usual for 1 week (sleep extension) and after a 1-week washout period to allow sufficient time for children to return to their usual sleeping habits, they were asked to go to bed 1 hour later than usual for 1 week (sleep restriction). Children filled out questionnaires related to HRQOL. For example, “Thinking about the last week, have you been in a good mood?” and “Thinking about last week, have you been happy at school?”
Compared to the sleep extension week, during the sleep restricted week, children received 39 minutes less total sleep. “This loss of sleep resulted in significant reductions in the children’s physical well-being, overall well-being, and ability to cope in a school environment.” Notably, the loss of sleep causing these impairments was only 39 minutes!
Other experimental sleep studies have shown that sleep restriction adversely affects mood, emotion, and cognition. Also, experimental sleep studies have shown that “…when children sleep less, they ate substantially more calories, particularly in the evenings, all of which came from noncore foods (generally those with poor nutritional quality) rather than from core foods, such as fruit and vegetables which are associated with higher HRQOL. Children replaced this loss of sleep mostly with sedentary time” such as more screen time.
Please look at Blog Post 6 to understand why small differences are not trivial.
Please look at Blog Post 137 to understand why only a few extra minutes of sleep each night add up and make a big difference for your child and also for mothers!
Please look at Blog Post 162 to understand why a slightly earlier bedtime will increase your child’s night sleep duration.
