Are Your Children Sleep Deprived?

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JESSE
Help me look for this piece.

DAMON MAHARG
Meet Jesse. Active, alert, happy. But that wasn't always the case. Before he began getting a good night's sleep, Jesse had trouble staying focused and was often fretful and uncooperative.

JESSE
I would be all tired and not wanting to do my school and thinking it was hard.

DAMON MAHARG
Jesse is not alone. A recent national sleep foundation poll found that nearly half of all youngsters between 11 and 17 are getting less than a full eight hours of sleep a night. Most kids this age need about nine.

Adolescents with sleeping problems are more likely to fall asleep in class, make worse grades than their peers, and are more apt to be unhappy, tense, or nervous. In some children, sleep deprivation can take the shape of hyperactivity.

KYLE JOHNSON
There's been an estimate that up to 25% of kids with ADHD may have an underlying sleep disorder that may be either exacerbating ADHD or potentially causing ADHD-type symptoms.

DAMON MAHARG
Jesse doesn't remember much about his restless nights, but his sleepwalking and night terrors did leave an impression on his mom.

PEGGY
You're suddenly awakened out of a dead sleep and you hear this boy just crying and moaning. And then you go in and he's shaking and shivering.
JESSE
I'm thinking of something north of the equator.

DAMON MAHARG
She consulted Jesse's pediatrician about the possibility that he might be one of the millions of kids who suffer from a sleep disorder. To be sure, sleep specialists at Oregon Health and Science University would need to conduct an overnight sleep test. Jesse didn't like that very much.

JESSE
I was all wired up and it hurt when they took the wires off.

DAMON MAHARG
Jesse was diagnosed with restless legs syndrome, a condition that affects 5% to 10% of the population and is characterized by a cramping or tingling sensation in the leg.

KYLE JOHNSON
So he had frequent movements of his legs that led to his brain waking up briefly. And then once we made the diagnosis doing a sleep study we were able to offer treatment.

DAMON MAHARG
What are some signs that your kids might not be getting a good night's sleep? They have difficulty going to bed in the evening. They're slow to get up in the morning and are then cranky once they do get up.

They frequently fall asleep during the day. They often wake up at night or they're chronic snorers. As for Jesse, he could probably tell you the value of a good night's sleep better than anyone, but we wouldn't want to wake him. For WebMD, I'm Damon Maharg.