Grown Up Problems from Childhood Sleep Problems

We know that sleep affects behavior, but what new research has shown that sleep issues in children and teenagers leads to problems when they grow up.


According to the National Sleep Foundation's 2004 Sleep in America poll, 13% of school-age children have difficulty falling asleep at bedtime and 26% of preschoolers seem sleepy or overtired during the day at least a few days a week. The report surveyed 1,473 adults with children 10 and younger in the home. Teenagers tend to have even more sleep issues. About 45% of adolescents ages 11 to 17 get less than eight hours of sleep a night, even though teenagers need between nine and 10 hours. And more than one-quarter of high-school kids fall asleep in school at least once a week, according to another Sleep in America poll from 2006 that surveyed 1,602 sixth through 12th graders and their parents or caregivers.

According to the National Sleep Foundation's 2004 Sleep in America poll, 13% of school-age children have difficulty falling asleep at bedtime and 26% of preschoolers seem sleepy or overtired during the day at least a few days a week. The report surveyed 1,473 adults with children 10 and younger in the home. Teenagers tend to have even more sleep issues. About 45% of adolescents ages 11 to 17 get less than eight hours of sleep a night, even though teenagers need between nine and 10 hours. And more than one-quarter of high-school kids fall asleep in school at least once a week, according to another Sleep in America poll from 2006 that surveyed 1,602 sixth through 12th graders and their parents or caregivers.

A 2010 study of 392 boys and girls published online in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that those who had trouble sleeping at 12 to 14 years old were more than two times as likely to have suicidal thoughts at ages 15 to 17 as those who didn't have sleep problems at the younger age. In a study published last year in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, involving 386 participants, children whose mothers reported that they were overtired when 3 to 8 years old were 2.8 times as likely to binge drink when they were 18 to 20 years old. And a study of 1,037 children revealed that 46% of those who were considered to have a persistent sleep difficulty at age 9 had an anxiety disorder at age 21 or 26. By comparison, of the children who didn't have sleep problems at age 9, 33% had an anxiety disorder as young adults, according to the research, which was published in 2005 in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. Scientists caution that some study-sample sizes are small and research is still in its early stages.

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