Recommended Amount of Sleep for Pediatric Populations: A Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Abstract

Sleep is essential for optimal health in children and adolescents. Members of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine developed consensus recommendations for the amount of sleep needed to promote optimal health in children and adolescents using a modified RAND Appropriateness Method. The recommendations are summarized here. A manuscript detailing the conference proceedings and the evidence supporting these recommendations will be published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. CO NSENSUS RECO M M ENDATI O NS• Infants* 4 months to 12 months should sleep 12 to 16 hours per 24 hours (including naps) on a regular basis to promote optimal health. • Children 1 to 2 years of age should sleep 11 to 14 hours per 24 hours (including naps) on a regular basis to promote optimal health. • Children 3 to 5 years of age should sleep 10 to 13 hours per 24 hours (including naps) on a regular basis to promote optimal health. • Children 6 to 12 years of age should sleep 9 to 12 hours per 24 hours on a regular basis to promote optimal health. • Teenagers 13 to 18 years of age should sleep 8 to 10 hours per 24 hours on a regular basis to promote optimal health.• Sleeping the number of recommended hours on a regular basis is associated with better health outcomes including: improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health.• Regularly sleeping fewer than the number of recommended hours is associated with attention, behavior, and learning problems. teenagers is associated with increased risk of self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts.• Regularly sleeping more than the recommended hours may be associated with adverse health outcomes such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and mental health problems.• Parents who are concerned that their child is sleeping too little or too much should consult their healthcare provider for evaluation of a possible sleep disorder.* Recommendations for infants younger than 4 months are not included due to the wide range of normal variation in duration and patterns of sleep, and insufficient evidence for associations with health outcomes. BACKG ROUND A ND M ETHO DO LOGYHealthy sleep requires adequate duration, appropriate timing, good quality, regularity, and the absence of sleep disturbances or disorders. Sleep duration is a frequently investigated sleep measure in relation to health. A panel of 13 experts in sleep medicine and research used a modified RAND Appropriateness Method 1 to develop recommendations regarding the sleep duration range that promotes optimal health in children aged 0-18 years. The expert panel reviewed published scientific evidence addressing the relationship between sleep duration and

Study of sleep pattern in children aged 1-12 years attending OPD at tertiary care hospital, Puducherry, India

“…Inadequate sleep can cause learning and behavioral problems and also some disorders seen in adulthood such as obesity, hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus. 2 Apart from biological determinants, there are social, environmental and cultural influencers of sleep habits. These have not been addressed adequately in this part of the country.…”

Pilot Study to Determine Feasibility of Measuring Sleep Hygiene and ADHD in Mother, Father and School-Aged Child

“…Recommended sleep time for school-age children is between 9 and 12 hrs for each 24 hrs period [41]. Two of the children had average sleep onset latencies of greater than or equal to 39 min.…”

“…The procedures established in the small pilot were modified and will be used in a larger study to determine the effect sizes for: 1) The relationships between sleep hygiene in school-aged children with ADHD and their mothers' and fathers' sleep hygiene and ADHD symptoms, and 2) The amount of total variance in sleep of school-age children with ADHD that is explained by each parent's ADHD symptoms, mothers' sleep hygiene, and child sleep hygiene [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50].…”

Later School Start Times: What Informs Parent Support or Opposition?

“…32,33 We used SAS software, version 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina, United States) for all statistical analyses.…”