“Let amma come,” was Pooja’s (name changed) constant reply to her grandmother. As a three-year-old child, she stayed awake till 11.30 p.m. every day for her mother to return home from work. Her dinner time was erratic, and sleep was inadequate.
“Even if she was forced to go to bed before I returned from work, it was never a sound sleep. She used to wake up as soon as I reached. She woke up at 7 a.m. for school and the sleep was never enough. It left an impact on her appetite and she fell ill frequently,” her mother, Shyamala (name changed), said.
When the situation became difficult to manage, Shyamala took a break from work, and later, switched to a job that enabled her to reach home and put her daughter to bed early.
Many children were not getting adequate sleep nowadays, observed S. Balasubramanian, medical director of Kanchi Kamakoti CHILDS Trust Hospital.
“When both parents are working and get back home late in the night, children tend to stay awake and wait for them. This drastically alters their sleep schedule,” he said. There are other reasons that affect their sleep. “Watching television in the bedroom or using electronic gadgets will disturb sleep due to the light,” he added.
Health concern
In his two decades of practice, P. Ramkumar, senior consultant, paediatrician, has been noticing the drastic reduction in sleeping hours for children.
“If children do not sleep well, their scholastic performance will decrease, there will be daytime sleepiness and tiredness. Inadequate sleep can also be due to obesity, snoring due to adenoiditis, gastroesophageal reflux, night cough due to sinusitis and bronchitis, bed wetting and teeth grinding,” he said.
But more than the medical causes, it is screen time — television, cell phone, video games and laptop — that is decreasing the sleeping time, he added.
Koushik Muthuraja, consultant, pulmonologist and sleep specialist, Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre, said children should ideally sleep for eight hours.
“The ideal time is from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. The younger they are, the more sleep they need as this will put the brain to rest. When the brain rests adequately, it will perform much better,” he said.
Academic pressure is also one of the main things that deprives children of adequate sleep, he said, adding: “Children are definitely sleeping less now and there is no doubt about it. At least 20 to 30% of children lack adequate sleep due to pressure from schools, peers and parents to perform well in academics. As a result of this, children study till midnight and then wake up at 4 a.m. to study. This is also sleep deprivation.”
Irritability, generalised tiredness, lack of concentration, lack of memory and mood changes occur due to lack of adequate sleep, he observed.
“It is unacceptable if any child sleeps for less than seven hours. Children who sleep for more than seven hours will perform better, and they will have a good physiological and psychological health,” he added.
