I was reading about the sad case of a Chinese man who was found dead after pushing his body to limit. Whilst he was not a child, his untimely death raises some issues about children and sleep deprivation:
Jiang Xiaoshan died from exhaustion on June 19 after reportedly staying up every night to watch the Euros with his friends.
After watching Italy defeat the Republic of Ireland, the 26-year-old fan went back to his home in Changsha, took a shower and fell asleep. Mr Xiaoshan never woke up.
Technology addiction is a universal problem and one of the signs that one is addicted is sleep deprivation. We are seeing an increase of exhausted kids in the classroom. Part of the reason for this is children have access to televisions, computers and smartphones in their bedrooms. This often results in late nights and a lack of concentration during the day.
Studies have shown that this is a big problem:
“Cellphones, Facebook, iPods and video games are keeping kids up later at night. And the literature is suggesting it’s getting worse, not better,” Collop says.
At the AASM annual meeting in June, dozens of studies were presented indicating school performance is dropping because of student sleepiness, Collop says.
“There’s more and more information showing insufficient sleep affects cognitive ability, and emotional and physical well-being,” says Dennis Rosen, associate director of the Sleep Disorders Program at Children’s Hospital Boston.
About 25% of children overall experience some type of sleep problem, ranging from difficulty falling asleep and night wakings to more serious primary sleep disorders. More than a third of elementary-school-aged kids and 40% of adolescents have significant sleep complaints, according to AASM.
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