When your child’s sleep tank is drained because of an illness or holiday or other special event, how many days of recovery sleep does it take to refill the tank? The answer depends on how well your child was sleeping before the event, the severity of the sleep loss per night, and the number of days of insufficient sleep. Here are some facts that illustrate why recovery may take longer than you think. In 2021, researchers in Australia studied adolescents, aged 15-17 years, all were good sleepers with more than 8 hours of sleep per night. They were experimentally studied in a sleep laboratory for 10 nights and divided into 3 groups:
Nights 1 and 2 (Baseline):
Nights 3-8:
Nights 9 and 10 (Recovery):
Here are the results:
Group 1.
Group 2.
Group 3.
Conclusions
Sleep Banking (Blog Post 63) may help recover from sleep loss.
(To be continued.) To stay updated with my latest baby and child sleep blog posts, be sure to subscribe today.