An actigraphic study of the sleep patterns of younger and older school-age children.

OBJECTIVE: Sleep is viewed as being relatively consistent across the school-age period (6-13 years of age), however this claim has not been empirically supported. The objective of this study was to document the duration, schedule, variability, and week versus weekend discrepancies of sleep in three distinct age groups within the school-age period.

METHODS: Participants were divided by age: Cycle 1, 6 and 7 years; Cycle 2, 8 and 9 years; and Cycle 3, 10 and 11 years. For seven consecutive nights, sleep was assessed in the home environment using an actigraph.

RESULTS: Compared to children of Cycle 1, those of Cycles 2 and 3 showed increasing and significant delays in sleep start time, increasingly shorter assumed and actual sleep durations, and larger night-to-night variability of sleep. Of the children in Cycles 1, 2, and 3, 96%, 87.7%, and 51.3%, respectively, were found to spend the recommended 9-11 h in bed. However, the actigraphic 'true sleep' measure revealed that only 17%, 7%, and 2.5% of these children, respectively, obtained the recommended amount of sleep.

CONCLUSION: Sleep duration, schedule, and variability change significantly across the school-age period.