Goodnight, Sleep Right

Check out the last of a three-part series on sleep deprivation and how it affects our lives in the November 2003 issue of Canadian Living. Here is the series' second installment.

When it comes to bedtime, parents should dictate, not negotiate. That's the advice of sleep researchers, who are alarmed at the mounting evidence of sleep deprivation in school-age kids.

While researchers have long suspected that lack of sleep contributes to learning difficulties and behavioural problems at school, the evidence to prove it is growing stronger: new research has revealed that sleep plays a vital role in a child's ongoing brain development. What's left to know, besides the fact that kids aren't getting enough sleep, is just how much havoc this lack of sleep is wreaking.

All of this matters so much because, unlike adults, kids have brains that are still under construction. As schoolchildren, they experience a period of intense learning that lays the foundation for their lives.

Dr. Ian MacLusky, a father of two and head of the sleep clinic at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, doesn't need any more research to explain why kids don't get enough sleep. "TV and video games are the kiss of death," he says.

MacLusky admits to some direct action on the home front: he has actually broken a games CD and disconnected the cable to demonstrate to his kids that he means business about bedtime. And he's unrepentant. "No wonder kids can't fall asleep after two hours of playing Doom and killing monsters," he says.

What alarms MacLusky and others isn't just that kids aren't getting the nine to 10 hours that they need but that parents don't recognize lack of sleep as a serious health issue. But that's not all. Scientists have now started to recognize links among childhood obesity (another explosive health issue for modern kids), sleep deprivation and learning difficulties.

In North America a staggering one in three kids is clinically obese. (Over the past 15 years alone, the number of overweight or obese children has almost doubled.) It becomes a vicious circle that begins with electronic diversions: too much time spent watching TV or playing video games is time lost for physical pursuits, insufficient physical activity leads to childhood obesity, obesity affects the quality and quantity of sleep, and lack of sleep affects a child's ability to learn.

As every parent knows, they're all interconnected. Making sure kids get the sleep, exercise and nutrition they need to be healthy and to perform well is an ongoing challenge. But it's a challenge that some parents are willing to concede too easily, says Dr. Judith Owens, director of the pediatric sleep disorders clinic at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I. When our children are babies, we spend a lot of time and energy trying to get them to sleep. Many volumes have been written - and purchased - about baby sleep; discussions among new parents often revolve around the baby's sleep patterns. But once kids can tie their own shoes, the issue takes a backseat to other concerns. You won't find many books about helping your school-age child get enough sleep. But, for many parents, the problem itself is far from gone.

"This is a huge problem," says Dr. Rachel Morehouse, director of the sleep clinic and laboratory at Saint John Regional Hospital in New Brunswick. "A lot of parents are struggling with it because our society is struggling with it." Parents need to know that health comes first, school comes second, and everything else is a mere bit part, she says, and should be regarded as such.

One of the problems is that a major parental shift occurs when kids enter middle school (grades 5 through 8). As their children enter these years, parents become less likely to supervise bedtime and protect sleeptime, says Owens. They let the kids take over as the number of extracurricular, family and school activities increases.

"To set priorities, you have to understand what the payment is if you don't," says Owens. "If you don't accept the fact that your kids' academics, moods or sports will suffer as a result of not getting enough sleep, then you're not going to be very motivated to ensure that they do."

Morehouse has some sympathy for the plight of parents trying to get kids to bed when so much else is competing for their time and attention. "But if it's a choice between hockey and sleep, figure it out!" she says. "When you point it out to people, they say, 'Oh yeah, that is pretty obvious.'"