I’ve written before about how sugar and sugary drinks are basically toxic to kids (and adults).

And it’s true.

One of the best things that you can do for your children is keep them away from excessive and needless sugar. (Halloween, anyone? 🙂 )

But one of the other CRUCIAL things that we are missing with our kids is protecting their sleep!

How much sleep are your kids getting on an average night? You might be surprised that many (over 50% of) children are chronically sleep-deprived.

And it’s largely our (the parents’) fault.

There is good evidence that insufficient sleep for children results in all kinds of negative outcomes.

This article looked at how school performance: focus, ability to complete tasks/homework, and even just a general interest in learning are affected by lack of sleep.

If a child’s brain is sleep deprived, it doesn’t have the energy to focus and learn. So they become irritable and inattentive.

Here’s a chart that gives the recommended hours of sleep for kids…

So, how’re your children doing? Are they getting enough?

Maybe they’ve been getting decent sleep – 9 hours or so – but they’re still having trouble with focusing and learning at school. Perhaps they need to get closer to 12 hours.

At any rate, I would definitely try the sleep approach before the drug approach.

How many kids are being medicated simply because they need more sleep?

So, since we’ve got the blessed daylight savings fall-back-an-hour this weekend, maybe we can all use this to jump-start a new and better sleep routine for our kids.

It might be a fight and a struggle at first, but a rested mind is a much healthier and happier mind.

It will be worth it.