Having young children and suffering from sleepless nights has made me quite obsessed with sleep, but parents are not the only ones who suffer; lack of sleep affects children too.
A survey by Newsround, found that a quarter of children aged 9 to 11 were going to bed after 10pm, and half said they weren’t getting enough sleep and wanted more.
Health experts warn that lack of sleep can cause health and behavioural problems in young children. The Sleep Council thinks sleep is so important for children that it should be taught in schools.
In fact, a sleep charity in Glasgow, has started to give teenagers sleep lessons and it hopes to roll out the project across the rest of Scotland.
And some research points to the fact that children sleep an hour less than they did thirty years ago. They also claim that this ‘lost hour’ has some serious health implications eg poor academic performance and ADHD.
Another study has shown that children aged 12 to 18 years, who went to bed after midnight, are 24% more likely to be depressed. When our kids are young we are concerned about how early they wake up but by the time they are teenagers, we are worried about how late they sleep in. One school has decided to embrace the night owl lifestyle of teenagers and has changed school hours, so that school starts at 10.00am.
The head sensibly points out that young people in general are naturally late risers. They concentrate better in the afternoon and so he has adapted the school timetable to reflect this.
It is great to see that schools are coming up with practical solutions for solving some of the difficulties we face with older children, but we also need to educate parents and children about the importance of sleep.
Lack of sleep also has a negative effect on parents. Research has shown that adults who get less than six hours of sleep a night function the same as someone who hasn’t slept for 24 hours.
The first year of having twins seemed to be a blur of feeding, changing and broken sleep. Then they started teething and used to scream from 8pm to around midnight and don’t get me started on when we moved them from their cots into beds…
If you are really struggling with getting enough sleep it is vital to ask for help from friends and family. My neighbours used to take my eldest child to school. They were passing my door, it wasn’t hard for them, but it made a massive difference to my day. You can also suggest taking turns to be on night duty with your partner or husband, so that neither of you go through a prolonged period of time without any sleep. The BBC's Headroom site has some great tips for getting a good night’s sleep.
With young children, the mantra should be routine - get them to do the same thing every night. Start with a hot bath, a milky drink and a bedtime story. All three of my children love snuggling up in bed reading stories - it’s the perfect end to a busy day.
Teenagers need to know that they should aim for eight to nine hours sleep a night to function properly, but parents ought to be sympathetic to their wish to go to bed later and get up later whenever possible. Suggest playing a game or encourage them to try reading or listening to quiet music an hour before bed, rather than being glued to TV or games screens and texting. This can really help them wind down and relax properly.
Getting enough sleep can be hard, given the pressures on our lives. But it is worth working on, as there can be big knock-on effects on our children and ourselves, if we don’t.
Claire Winter is a member of the BBC Parent Panel.
Take a look at the BBC Learning Scotland blog entry 'Make my teenager sleep' by Anne McNaught.