Less Than Half of Children in US Get Sufficient Sleep

Sufficient sleep linked to increased odds of combined flourishing measure, individual measures.

HealthDay News — Less than half of US children have sufficient sleep, which is positively associated with several individual markers and a combined marker of flourishing, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, held from Oct. 25 to 29 in New Orleans.

Hoi See Tsao, MD, from the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston, and colleagues examined the correlation between sleep sufficiency and markers of childhood flourishing using parental responses for 49,050 children aged 6 to 17 years from the 2016 to 2017 National Survey of Children’s Health.

The researchers found that 47.6% of U.S. children were estimated to have sufficient sleep. There was a positive impact for sufficient sleep on individual flourishing markers and as a combined measure. Children with sufficient sleep had significantly increased odds of demonstrating the combined flourishing measure in the adjusted model (odds ratio, 1.12). Sufficient sleep also correlated with statistically significantly increased odds of showing interest and curiosity in learning new things, doing all required homework, caring about doing well in school, and working to finish tasks they start (odds ratios, 1.44, 1.33, 1.28, and 1.14, respectively).

“As health care providers, we want every child to reach his or her full potential,” Tsao said in a statement. “Our research shows that children who get enough sleep are more likely to demonstrate measures of childhood flourishing in comparison to children with insufficient sleep.”

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