Health experts say four out of 10 children don't get enough sleep and more than 2 million children nationwide suffer from sleep disorders, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Sleep is essential to school performance because it gives children's bodies and brains time to grow, gives their tissues and central nervous system time to undergo necessary repairs and is essential for learning and memory consolidation, said Sangeeta Chakravorty, MD, director of Children's Sleep Program at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
"Families are adding more and more activities to their children's calendars and children have more homework than ever before, so sleep is the one area students borrow time from in order to meet these expectations," Dr. Chakravorty said.
Unfortunately, getting less sleep means they inadvertently sabotage their own school performance. At a minimum, kids ages 6 - 12 need 10 hours of sleep a night and teenagers need about 9 hours to maximize their learning potential at school."
Complicating matters is the increasing incidence of pediatric sleep disorders that prevent children from getting a full night's rest. These disorders include insomnia, snoring, sleep apnea (associated with an increase in childhood obesity), nightmares and night terrors.
"Often, children who aren't getting adequate sleep perform poorly at school or exhibit behavioral issues. Unfortunately, families and educators don't always immediately realize that a lack of sleep may be a major contributor to these problems, so they persist," Dr. Chakravorty.
"Parents are often very surprised to learn that the diagnosis of a sleep disorder and the implementation of a treatment program alleviate these problems."
