Young ‘night owls’ may need more sleep

Is your child up with the larks or still hooting with the owls?

It seems that your grandmother’s advice was right: children need a good night’s sleep.

A recent study published in Informa’s Chronobiology International sets out the different types of childhood sleep patterns and examines how young bodies cope with late nights.

Chronobiology International – Informa Healthcare’s journal on how biological rhythms affect the systems of living things – has published a new study on the sleep patterns of young children.

The study concluded that, from a very young age, children can be categorised into three main chronotypes: morning types (or ‘larks’), evening types (‘owls’), or intermediate types.

Whatever their type, children’s bodies seem to make up for the sleep deficit of scheduled days by sleeping more on free days.

Parents and educators of ‘owl’ types may be concerned to learn that a host of behavioural problems are more common amongst children who are wakeful in the evenings and the results of this study indicate that pre-pubertal children who fall into the ‘owl’ category may have difficulty obtaining enough sleep.

 The study found that evening types are at higher risk than morning types of not obtaining sufficient sleep during scheduled days. This, in turn, may be associated with increased daytime sleepiness, poorer school achievement, and greater emotional and behavioural problems.

 “Chronotype is an individual characteristic reflecting the time of day at which individuals are ‘at their best’. Evening types can’t help that they are evening types,” explains Helene Werner, a psychologist at the Child Development Center of the University Hospital Zurich and first author of the article in Chronobiology International.

“However, they are at risk of performing poorly due to discordance between their individual circadian rhythm and social demands of a busy school and sports schedule.”

Childhood sleep problems – such as bedtime resistance, not being able to fall asleep, night waking and difficulties waking in the mornings – are common parental concerns that affect more than 25 per cent of children during the first 10 years.

Recognising the individual child’s circadian typology may help parents, teachers and health care professionals in dealing with these types of sleep problems.

Many studies have demonstrated the differences between chronotypes among adults and teenagers. This is the first time a comprehensive study has been carried out on pre-pubertal children.

The research was conducted on 163 4-11 year old children in Zurich, Switzerland.