Who Wants Their Children to Sleep Better at Night?

Who Wants Their Children to Sleep Better at Night?

By Kelsie Noel, DPT

Kids Place Pediatric Physical Therapist

Try spending a night at the pool!

While at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA, I participated in a research project that studied the effects of aquatic exercise on sleep patterns in children with autism.  We hypothesized that children who actively participated in aquatic exercise would fall asleep faster, sleep for a longer duration, and wake up less frequently throughout the night.  The results of our study were remarkable!  In fact, the benefits of aquatic exercise can apply not only to children with autism, but all children!

In our research, it was found that when kids spend just an hour swimming, on average they fell asleep 17 minutes faster and slept an hour and a half longer. In a separate study, it was also found that when an individual exercises within four hours of bedtime, there is an increase in total time slept and decrease in wake time after sleep onset [1].  Other researchers conducted a study comparing high school athletes to a control group of students who were not physically active and found that athletes had higher scores for sleep quality, smaller number of awakenings, and quicker sleep onset [2].

Most kids enjoy any water-based activity rather than land, but the aquatic environment offers many additional benefits:

• Aquatic exercise is low impact - decreased risk of muscle soreness, stress fractures, and other injuries.

• Water provides resistance to movement in all directions - more muscles are being strengthened within each workout.  Additionally, the resistance is adjustable depending upon the speed of movement. 

• Hydrostatic pressure helps the heart circulate blood throughout the body - decreasing blood pressure and heart rate.  One can exercise longer in the water without an increase in effort.

• For children with autism, aquatic exercise provides constant somatosensory input - supplies even pressure to the entire body [3].

There are many aquatic activities for your kids to increase their heart rate, such as: walking, jumping jacks, high knees, butt kicks, arm circuits including bicep curls and arm circles, leg circuits including wall kicks and marching in place, kick board relays, and games like “Keep away.”  Your child does not have to be able to swim to perform most of these!  In the study, the average increase in heart rate was found to be 64 percent of the maximum heart rate, which is equivalent to a moderate-intensity workout. Remember the goal is to increase your child’s heart rate, thus tiring them out so they will sleep better at night!

Carryover effects were not found for consecutive nights.  If your child swam on Monday night and slept better that night, it does not mean your child will also sleep better on Tuesday night without going back to the pool.  While most parents do not have an hour in their schedule every night of the week to swim, improving a child’s sleep at least 2 night of the week could result in an improved sleep schedule and bedtime routine - beneficial to enhancing sleep.

Future research is looking into the benefits as a whole for children receiving more sleep at night, beyond having an easier time in the morning waking up your child.  Some suggested benefits include improved behavior during the day and increased attention span during school hours.

If you do not have a pool at home or in your community, you can try signing your child up for swim lessons, giving you some more time to complete your to-do list!  Some suggested locations for swim lessons include:

http://www.aquatots-phoenix.com/swim-schools/northwest-phoenix/#swimclasses

http://valleyymca.org/branchClasses.cfm?place=15&core=04

https://www.lifetimefitness.com/en/clubs/palm-valley-az/your-lt.html

[1] Youngstedt, S.D. (2005).  Effects of exercise on sleep. Clinics in Sports Medicine, 24, 355-365.

[2] Brand, S., Gerber, M., Beck, J., Hatzinger, M., Pühse, U., & Holsboer-Trachsler, E. (2010).  High exercise levels are related to favorable sleep patterns and psychological functioning in adolescents: A comparison of athletes and controls. Journal of Adolescent Health, 46(2), 133-141.

[3] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012, March 03). Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs).  Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/index.html