Introduction
In our previous post, we mentioned the importance of sleep and how it can be related to our wellbeing. We also discussed how adequate sleep routines can be a form of self-care, which can increase our quality of life. A recent study mentions that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to adolscents' mental health and sleep quality challenges (Uccella et al., 2023). According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 1 in 3 adults (and even more adolescents) are not getting enough sleep.
Poor sleep can lead to health issues, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer. Because of this HealthyPeople.gov has prioritized the objective of increasing the proportion of high school students who get enough sleep. Data from 2021 reveals that the situation is getting worse with 22.7% of high schoolers getting sufficient sleep, which is down from a baseline rate of 25.4% in 2017. The target set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is 27.4%.
What Can The 4-H Program Do to Help?
The 4-H youth development program serves almost 6 million youth in the United States and beyond. In California, 4-H serves about 58,000 youth each year and is supported by thousands of 4-H adult volunteers. Many 4-H volunteers lead project meetings and other events to support the wellbeing of our youth. Youth learn about healthy food and nutritional intake, robotics (STEM), animal sciences, and sewing/textiles. To help youth learn, the 4-H program provides experiential learning developmental contexts to allow youth to increase their content and skills mastery in a variety of subjects.
In California, many of these learning opportunities happen during the evening hours. For example, 4-H club meetings often occur during the evening on a school night. Sometimes these meetings can run long, which can reduce the amount of sleep time our young people can have. Another example is 4-H summer camp, where programs and activities are crammed into each hour of the day, sometimes really late into the evening. If a 4-H teen counselor at summer camp stays up until “lights out” at 10:00 pm and then heads to a leadership meeting thereafter, they may not sleep until 11:00 pm or maybe even midnight. This situation can be exacerbated if breakfast is at 7:00 am, which may leave them with only 6-7 hours of sleep.
So what are the recommendations for optimal sleep among youth?
Sleep Recommendations
Members of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine created a list of recommendations for the amount of sleep that youth should have (Paruthi et al., 2016), which include:
- Infants (4 months to 12 months): 12 to 16 hours per 24 hours (including naps)
- Children (ages 1-2): 11 to 14 hours per 24 hours (including naps)
- Children (ages 3-5): 10 to 13 hours per 24 hours (including naps)
- Children (ages 6-12): 9 to 12 hour per 24 hours
- Teenagers (13-18): 8 to 10 hours per 24 hours
Key Take-Aways
When planning meetings and learning activities involving young people, consider the end times and how these might adversely affect the amount of sleep our young people can get. While scheduling around adults' work schedules, might we also consider the sleep needs of youth and end the meetings at a reasonable hour?
In addition, we can consider the start times and how these might negatively impact the duration and quality of sleep for our young people. For example, at a 4-H summer camp, instead of scheduling breakfast at 7:00 am, can we have breakfast at 8:00 am to provide youth one more hour to sleep? When scheduling our youth development meetings and activities, careful consideration should guide decisions about when we start and end our meetings and activities so that we protect the sleep of our youth.
To help you prioritize sleep when planning your 4-H events, here are some resources Marcel Horowitz put together: https://ucanr.edu/site/california-4-h-healthy-living-toolkit/policies-guidelines-prioritize-sleep
References
Paruthi, S., Brooks, L. J., D'Ambrosio, C., Hall, W. A., Kotagal, S., Lloyd, R. M., ... & Wise, M. S. (2016). Consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine on the recommended amount of sleep for healthy children: methodology and discussion. Journal of clinical sleep medicine, 12(11), 1549-1561. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.6288
Uccella, S., Cordani, R., Salfi, F., Gorgoni, M., Scarpelli, S., Gemignani, A., ... & Nobili, L. (2023). Sleep deprivation and insomnia in adolescence: implications for mental health. Brain sciences, 13(4), 569. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13040569