American children are not getting enough sleep and many experience sleep problems.

Children, from newborns to fifth-graders, are getting one to two hours less sleep each day than is recommended. This finding was documented in a study by the National Sleep Foundation and recently reported by the Associated Press. Dr. Kathleen Lake, assistant professor of pediatrics at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield, says lack of sleep affects children's behavior and learning ability.

SOUND BITE: " . . . being exhausted, being fatigued, will definitely slow reaction time, and will slow intellectual capacity. And I think there is good data showing school work suffers from lack of sleep. Also sports activities and even extra curricular activities will suffer some if the child is tired."

Dr. Lake says younger children who are preschool and kindergarten age need 11 to 12 hours of sleep each night. School-age children need 10 to 11 hours of sleep and teenagers need 9 hours, although few teens actually get that much sleep on a daily basis. She says today's overscheduled lifestyles is one of the culprits of getting too little sleep. Dr. Lake says parents need to take responsibility for their children getting adequate sleep.

SOUND BITE: " . . . you really have to make sleep a priority and set a bed time, set a bedtime routine and live with it and live by it. And if you start this when the child is under a year old and continue it all they way through, they are never going to doubt when you say "it's bedtime," it's bedtime.

Dr. Lake recommends establishing a predictable bedtime routine such as playing soft music or reading. The routine should be followed every night including weekends. If sleep problems continue, the child should be seen by a family doctor or pediatrician.