SLEEPLESS KIDS CRISIS
THE number of under-14s being admitted to hospital for sleep disorders has tripled in the past ten years.
Figures also show ten times more prescriptions of common sleep medication melatonin were written for children and under-55s in the same period.
Poor sleep in children has been linked with increased risk of obesity, lower immunity, mental health issues and poor school performance. NHS data analysed by the BBC’s Panorama reveals more than 8,000 under14s were admitted to hospital last year with sleep disorders compared with fewer than 2,000 in 1998.
Things thought to interfere with sleep include light from smartphones and tablets which hit natural production of melatonin, the hormone that makes us sleepy.
Households where both parents work can also be busier in the evenings, making bedtimes later.
And sugary drinks make it harder to switch off at night. Ellie Keady, 13, recently spent the night under observation at Sheffield Children’s Hospital’s sleep service – which has had a tenfold increase in referrals in the past decade.
She has suffered sleep problems since she broke her foot in 2011 and it has affected her education. She goes to bed at 9pm but usually lies awake until 2.30am
Ellie said: “Sometimes I’ll go to school and I’ll have had only two and a half hours’ sleep. Sleep deprivation is estimated to cost the UK £40billion a year. A BEACH was sealed off by cops after reports of an unexploded bomb – but it turned out to be scrap metal at Highcliffe, Dorset. AN unnamed punter won £457,000 on a bet of 20p placed on a six-horse accumulator on Friday at a Ladbrokes in North London.