Sleep guidelines recommend the total amounts of sleep that children should get at different ages. But these guidelines are based on children’s average sleep patterns, not on the relationship between children’s sleep and their health and wellbeing.

A recent study by the Centre for Community Child Health looked at the sleep of more than 3,000 Australian children aged four to five years.

During the study, parents completed a detailed diary recording every activity their child does over 24 hours, including their child’s sleep.

The study found no clear associations between how much children slept and their behaviour and emotional wellbeing, their quality of life, their weight or their academic ability, or parents’ own emotional wellbeing.

The Centre for Community Child Health’s Dr Anna Price, the lead author of the study, says “The results suggest that sleep duration in itself is not a strong driver for good or poor health outcomes in children,” said lead author Dr Anna Price from the Centre for Community Child Health.

“However, we know that children with sleep problems do have poorer health and wellbeing, so the next step is to find out exactly what drives sleep problems, if it isn’t sleep duration.”

Read more about the study in the Herald Sun – Sleep guidelines for kids ‘misguided’, 9 September 2015.

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