As children settle back into their first full week of school, how can parents ensure they are getting enough quality sleep? Sylvia Thompsonreports
Are the high-tech bedrooms of many teenagers disturbing their sleep? Yes, according to the results of a sleep study of 1,000 12-16 year-olds in Britain last week.
The UK Sleep Council survey found that on average almost a quarter of teenagers admit to falling asleep watching television, listening to music or with other machinery such as computers still running more than once a week. "This form of ambient noise is disturbing to sleep," says Dr Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre in Scotland.
Almost all those surveyed said they had a phone, music system or TV in their bedroom and two-thirds had all three. And boys in particular - one-fifth of whom admitted their quality of sleep was affected by leaving the TV or computer switched on - tended to also have games consoles in their bedrooms.
The Sleep Council survey also found that nearly one-third (30 per cent) of 12-16 year-olds get four-seven hours' sleep instead of the recommended eight-nine hours for this age group.
"This is an incredibly worrying trend," says Idzikowski, author of Sleep(Harper Collins) and the Good Sleep Box. "What we are seeing is the emergence of junk sleep - that is sleep that is neither the length nor quality that it should be in order to feed the brain with the rest it needs to perform properly at school."
The survey found that 40 per cent of teenagers generally feel tired during the day with that figure rising to 50 per cent among 15 and 16 year-old girls.
As Irish children and teenagers settle into their first full week back at school, ensuring that they get enough sleep is uppermost in the minds of many parents. But are we, as parents, doing enough to nurture good sleeping habits? And should we be encouraging better bed- time rituals among teenagers?
"Youngsters need to be taught that a healthy lifestyle includes healthy sleep as well as healthy food," says Idzikowski. "The message is simple, switch off the gadgets and get more sleep."
In the Sleep Council survey, teenagers blamed feeling too hot or too cold, worrying and an uncomfortable bed for their lack of sleep. "A comfortable bed in a well-ventilated room, free from distractions is a good starting point in encouraging a good healthy night's sleep," says Idzikowski.
According to Idzikowski, night-time reading doesn't have the same detrimental effects as the use of electronic equipment at bedtime. "Another, more formal survey of sleep aids found that reading was associated with better and longer sleep and better performance during the day than the use of DVDs, television or computer games at bedtime," he explains.
Anne O'Connor, clinical psychologist and founder of the parenting website, Rollercoaster.ie, says sleep can be a fairly contentious issue between parents and teenagers. "It can become an outright struggle that parents won't win and teenagers will tend to push bedtimes later and later," she says.
"Personally, I don't agree with TVs and computers in bedrooms but it's unrealistic to ask parents to take them out of teenagers' rooms," she says. "What parents need to do is to negotiate rules around them about when they are on and off," she says. "The teenage years are about learning to make your own decisions and there has to be give and take and trust between parents and their teenagers."
She does suggest, however, that mobile phones be kept out of young people's bedrooms and that night-time texting should be discouraged.
But how much sleep do teenagers need? According to O'Connor, young teenagers need about 10 hours' sleep a night while older teenagers need eight or nine hours per night. "During growth spurts, they will need more sleep so parents need to judge what stage their teenagers are at. Basically, if they are tired and irritable and slow to wake up in the morning, they need more sleep."
Some research also points to the benefits of getting some sleep early in the night. "Some studies have found that a negative effect on the motor skills of children who miss sleep early in the night," says Idzikowski. However, early night sleep is less important in adolescents and adults.
"It's a difficult area because if someone is in bed early and not sleeping, they can develop insomnia. Really, the best solution to promote good sleep is to read beside the bed with all the gadgets switched off and then get into bed to go asleep," he says.
And, finally, a subject which is getting more and more attention is the link between obesity and poor quality sleep. "Some studies have found that if sleep is restricted, there is poorer control of carbohydrate intake," says Idzikowski.
Put more simply, after a bad night's sleep, you are more likely to crave sugary foods to boost your energy levels. And as obesity levels rise in adults and children, the link between poor quality and not enough sleep and eating the wrong foods are being explored more.