Media Release
July 19 2007
The slide rule for a good night’s sleep
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Current
guidelines concerning the amount of sleep needed by children of
different ages are more often breached than not. Many children, who go
to bed late, cannot function effectively at school because they are
sleep deprived.
Researchers at the University of South Australia have found that a
general lack of awareness about the amount of sleep that children need
at different ages is a contributing factor to sleep loss.
As part of a broader public health strategy addressing sleep, health and
learning in children,
Associate Professor Kurt Lushington from UniSA’s
School of Psychology,
along with researchers from the
Centre for Sleep Research and the Sleep Disorders Unit at the
Women’s and Children’s Hospital, developed the Sleep Slide Rule for use
in the classroom to illustrate the relationship between children’s age
and their sleep needs.
“Children learn a lot about things like health, eating and exercise, but
little or nothing is taught about good sleeping habits,” Prof Lushington
said.
“The Sleep Slide Rule is a colourful and entertaining educational tool
designed to help children learn about the amount of sleep they need at
different ages.”
The top bar of the tool indicates bed-times and the bottom bar shows
wake-up times. By placing a movable pointer on the sleep time, children
can follow the colour band for their particular age group to see what
the corresponding wake-up time range should be on the bottom bar of the
tool.
The recommended sleep times for children aged three to five years are
(11 – 13 hours), five to 12 years (10 – 11 hours), and 12 to 18 years (8
– 10 hours).
The Sleep Slide Rule, along with an extensive sleep education program,
was piloted by primary school teachers in a South Australian Catholic
primary school.
The response from children and their teachers was that the tool was big
and easy to use, the writing style was ‘cool’, and it covered all ages.
Teachers said the slide rule was also instructive and functional and,
importantly, addressed the absence of educational aids on sleep
available for use in the classroom.
“Many children didn’t know that they needed so much sleep and that they
needed to change their bed-time if they were getting up too early or too
late. They learnt what a ‘school night’ meant and that they don’t need
as much sleep when they get older. They also learnt that bed-time and
going to sleep time are different and that sleep is really important,”
Prof Lushington said.
The tool was developed in response to UniSA research, based on sleep
surveys in 1985 and 2004, which show that school children aged between
10 and 15 years are averaging at least 30 minutes less sleep than
children of the same ages did 20 years ago.
“Increases in the number of computers, televisions and play stations in
bedrooms, and children using mobile phones indicate that ‘lights out’ is
less likely to coincide with the onset of sleep, leading to an
overestimation of sleep time in the 2004 sleep survey.”
With requests to buy the Sleep Slide Rule, Prof Lushington hopes to get
funding to produce a smaller version of the tool for use by individuals
and families.
Contact for interview
-
Assoc Prof Kurt Lushington office (08) 8302 2334 mobile 0418 820 244 email kurt.lushington@unisa.edu.au
Media contact
- Geraldine Hinter office (08) 8302 0963 mobile 0417 861832 email geraldine.hinter@unisa.edu.au