Haphazard Lifestyle Practices & Weight Issues Can Affect Regular Sleep Routines

Most Adolescents Don’t get their Recommended Sleeping Hours

My child sleeps when I go to sleep and wakes up when its time for me to wake up. She /he doesn’t like to take a nap and stays awake mostly during afternoons. This is a common complaint borne by many parents these days. A sleep-deprived child is feared by all as the parents too become sleep-deprived and suffer from irritation and lack of rest. Most parents undergo this stage of life and are ready to take up anything to put their kid to sleep. More than our health and sleep routine what we need to understand is that insufficient sleep is associated with unhealthy lifestyle routines among children and adolescents.

Sleep has been an issue in adults owing to the increased use of smartphones and changes in work timings but now children too are affected by this. Sleep is the time of day during which we relax our mind and body doing nothing. It’s the time needed for the body to replenish its energy stores and gear up for another day packed with demanding chores and activities. When we don’t offer our body this well-deserved rest, it drains our energy and leaves us with nothing but fatigue and tiredness. A new study conducted on more than 1,70,000 students found that insufficient sleep duration was owing to unhealthy lifestyle profile among children and adolescents.

Reputed academies recommend that children aged between 6 and 12 years of age should sleep nine to 12 hours daily while teenagers aged between 13 and 18 years of age should sleep for 8-10 hours daily. Of the total study participants aged between 8 and 17 years 51% were boys. Kids reported on food habits, weekday and weekend sleep routines, physical activity routines and sedentary activities through electronic questionnaires at school. The research team categorized any child sleeping for lesser than nine hours per day or adolescents sleeping for lesser than eight hours per day as suffering from insufficient sleep. Results showed that:
​

1. More number of boys compared to girls (42.3% versus 37.3%) and a greater number of children compared to adolescents (42.1% versus 32.8%) reported insufficient sleep duration. 
2. Adolescents with an insufficient sleep duration suffered from lower aerobic fitness and daily physical activity.
3. Better sleep routines improved aerobic fitness levels as well. It makes sense as better sleep routines paved way for increase in energy levels. Sleep increased physical activeness levels which in turn paved way for higher aerobic capacity.
4. Sleep routines were affected by dietary routines. Increased fast food consumption, skipping breakfast and consuming dessert treats regularly paved way for less time for sleep. It was also linked to increased screen time and overweight/obesity. Increased screen time has devastating effects on the body right from affecting eye health to eating junk food. For more information on increased screen time and its resulting disadvantages please visit the website www.firsteatright.com.
   ​

The study showed that almost 40% kids slept for less than the recommended number of hours. An inactive lifestyle and wrongful dietary practices show their effects right from affecting the body’s health to sleep routines as well. Nurturing kids in the right way is mandatory for helping them grow into healthy adults who become capable of leading active lives.