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 Under Canadian sleep guidelines, children aged 5 to 13 should get at
least nine hours of sleep a night and teens aged 14 to 17 should get
at least eight hours. For the study, researchers examined survey
data from 1,622 parents with at least one child in these age ranges
and found kids were 59 percent more likely to meet these minimum
sleep guidelines during the week when parents enforced a set bedtime
than when they didn't do this.
"The positive effect of enforcing bedtime rules on weekdays may
reflect broader parental expectations, bedtime structure or the
proactive nature of rule-setting," said senior study author Dr.
Heather Manson of Public Health Ontario in Toronto.
Just encouraging kids by reminding them about bedtimes may not work
the way parents expect it to, the study also found. When parents
relied on reminders about bedtime without enforcing the rules,
children were 71 percent less likely to get the minimum recommended
amount of sleep during the week.
"On weekdays, bedtime rule enforcement, not encouragement, was
conducive to children achieving sufficient sleep," Manson said by
email.
Depending on the age of the child, the proportion of parents
reporting that their child met the Canadian sleep guidelines ranged
from about 68 percent to 93 percent on weekdays and from 49 percent
to 86 percent on weekends.
The number of children getting the minimum recommended amount of
sleep increased from ages 5 to 9 but then declined from age 10 to
17, according to the results published in BMC Public Health.
Fifteen-year-olds had the biggest variation between weekday and
weekend sleep, with 38 percent fewer kids getting the minimum
recommended amount of rest on weekends than on weekdays.
Overall, about 94 percent of parents reported encouraging their
child to go to bed at a specific time, and roughly 84 percent
reported enforcing bedtime rules.
The study found rule enforcement more effective than simple
reminders even after adjusting for other factors like the age and
sex of the child, household income, parental education and other
rules such as restricting screen time or use of technology in the
bedroom.
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One limitation of the study is that it relied on parents to
accurately recall and report on their approach to bedtime routines
and the amount of sleep kids got. It didn't include any objective
measures of sleep duration or quality, and it wasn't a controlled
experiment designed to prove how specific parenting behaviors might
directly impact children's sleep.
Previous research has found that parents' consistency with enforcing
rules about bedtime and media use is critical for good sleep
outcomes, said Michelle Garrison of Seattle Children's Research
Institute and the University of Washington.
While parents may drive all aspects of these routines for babies,
they can start to involve kids in the process more as children age
to help them develop healthy independent sleep habits, Garrison, who
wasn't involved in the study, said by email. This might mean reading
to toddlers every night but letting them choose the book, for
example, or allowing teens to choose what relaxing activities will
help them prepare for bed.
"The parent may still have responsibility for getting the routine
started at the same time each night and helping the child learn to
practice self-monitoring to see if they are on track in terms of
both time and in calming down before bed," Garrison said.
"As they continue to move towards adulthood, the idea is to keep
gradually shifting more of this to the child so that they have the
opportunity to practice and grow these skills," Garrison added. "But
with enough structure and support so that we aren't expecting them
to have the self-regulation of an adult."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2qKYOSB BMC Public Health, online May 24,
2017.
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