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Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Sleep ... Children Aren't Getting Enough!!

The National Sleep Foundation's newest findings from a telephone survey show that children under 10 and their parents are not getting the recommended amount of sleep for their age. (Read it here on CNN.com)

In our busy society, we run here and run there and it seems that trying to fit in everything is reducing the amount of sleep that our children are receiving. Let's demonstrate this scenario: Mom and Dad both work and have to be at work by 8:00am, child has to be dropped off at school or childcare by 7:30am, which means he is either roused around 6:15 for breakfast and dressing or he is dragged out of bed asleep, tucked in a car seat and dropped off at the childcare center. Depending on the day, child care centers try to get children to sleep at the same time each day to establish a routine, but a thousand things can happen and easily interrupt the sleep of a toddler. Mom or Dad then pick up the child at 5:30 pm. Then they speed home and feed the children dinner--7:00pm already!! Now it's time for a bath and to get ready for bed -- 8:00pm.

8:00 pm - 6:00am = 10 hours of sleep + 2 hours at the childcare center for nap = 12 hours of sleep (the minimum for children between ages 12 - 35 months).

However if these parents want to spend quality time with their children subtract any of that time

OR

If the parents have a social / church function that evening again we chop into the child's hours of sleep.

OR

Imagine if this was a single parent family.

How do we deal with this phenomia? Is it safe to say that we cannot have it all?

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