It's officially Summer! With longer days, and school no longer in session, it's hard to maintain a regular schedule. However, just because it's summer, doesn't mean kids (and YOU!) don't need their sleep. It's important for brain development, stress management, and long-term health. From Time.com, is an article explaining how much and why everyone needs to still needs to get in their Zs.
Here's How Much Sleep Babies and Kids Need, By Age
By: Alice Park
Sleep experts combed through hundreds of studies to determine how much children of different ages should sleep to be at their healthiest
It’s no secret that adults aren’t getting enough sleep, and that’s a problem since more research is confirming that poor sleep can have lasting effects on health, including things like obesity and heart disease.
And the same is true for children. While kids with bed times have an easier time of getting enough sleep than adults, the intrusion of smartphones and tablets and social media, not to mention growing pressures at school, are also keeping kids up at night.
To help parents know how much sleep is enough, a group of 13 sleep experts convened by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine have issued sleep recommendations that have been endorsed by a number of health groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics. Based on what they found in 864 studies that tracked children’s sleep and their health outcomes, they found that children sleeping the recommended amounts below on a regular basis enjoyed fewer attention, behavior, and learning problems as well as lower rates of obesity, hypertension, and depression. But there was a limit to the benefit; too much sleep was associated with higher rates of diabetes, obesity, and mental health issues.
Here’s how much sleep they recommend for children at different ages:
Babies 4 to 12 months 12 to 16 hours
Children 1 to 2 years 11 to 14 hours
Children 3 to 5 years 10 to 13 hours
Children 6 to 12 years 9 to 12 hours
Teens 8 to 10 hours
To view the original article, click here.
