Lack of sleep in children may eventually affect them psychologically when they grow up. An ongoing study's findings show that the shortage of sleep in children puts them at an increased risk of having depression and anxiety disorders when they grow up.
"Healthy sleep is critical for children's psychological well-being," said principal investigator Candice Alfano, as per Science Daily. "Continually experiencing inadequate sleep can eventually lead to depression, anxiety and other types of emotional problems," added Alfano, a clinical psychologist and associate psychology professor at the University of Houston.
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Lack Of Sleep Affects Positive Experinces
Alfano and her colleagues temporarily restricted sleep in 50 children aged between seven and 11 in order to look at the effect of sleep deprivation in children. They found that the children had more negative emotions, according to a report from New Zealand Herald.
The children also reportedly had "distorted" positive emotional experiences, showing less enjoyment in positive things after two nights of inadequate sleep. The sleep-deprived children reacted less to positive things and had lesser tendencies to remember their fun experiences. All these were not present when the children had enough sleep.
The Importance Of Sleep In Children
"Parents, therefore, need to think about sleep as an essential component of overall health in the same way they do nutrition, dental hygiene and physical activity," said Albano, as quoted by a report in Daily Mail. Albano said that some signs a child is having inadequate sleep is when they have trouble waking up in the morning or if they are sleepy during the day.
Albano and her colleagues' study is funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health. Researchers are said trying to investigate different factors influencing a child's emotional well-being when they grow up while at present, there is reportedly more than $120 billion spent annually on depression- and anxiety-related disorders.
