A good night of ZZZZ's helps children earn A's and B's. But the problem has certainly gotten worse as the competing opportunities to do something other than sleep have increased. A 1999 study by the National Sleep Foundation found that nearly 60 percent of children ages 7 to 12 said they were sometimes, often or always tired during the day. Fifteen percent said they sleep in school. The fatigue factor among grade-schoolers has many causes.
Parents working long hours want to spend time at night with their children.
Evening sports or enrichment activities push back bedtimes. One reason the new education campaign is focusing on grade-schoolers is because sleep experts believe it's important to develop good sleep habits early. Good health maintenance begins in childhood. Another reason is that considerable attention has been paid recently to teen-agers' lack of sleep, to the point that a number of high schools across the country have pushed back their starting times. Much less attention has been directed at similar problems for growing grade-schoolers.