• Posted June 10, 2025

Kids Snooze Soundly In Happy Families

TUESDAY, June 10, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A happy family life can help tweens get better sleep, a new study says.

Kids are more likely to sleep longer if they have strong family relationships with highly engaged parents, according to research scheduled for presentation at a meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM).

Eating dinner with family and participating in neighborhood activities also were linked to a longer sleep duration, researchers found.

“It was surprising to find that multiple social connectedness variables were predictors of sufficient sleep duration,” lead investigator Marie Gombert-Labedens, a postdoctoral researcher at SRI International in Menlo Park, Calif., said in a news release.

The AASM recommends that 6- to 12-year-olds get even more sleep than adults — 9 to 12 hours — for their best health and development.

For this study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 5,000 kids between 9 and 11 years of age taking part in a long-term study of brain development. The kids’ caregivers completed at least two surveys in May and August 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has been shown to have affected kids’ sleep patterns, and researchers wanted to see if their social connections might have had any protective effect.

The highest rates of sufficient sleep were associated with high parental engagement (51%); eating together (48%); and discussing plans for the next day (48%), results show.

On the other hand, kids who got the least sleep were more likely to use screens to socialize (40%) and have little interaction with their parents (42%).

“These results support the importance of social networks in sleep health and may inform future campaigns, ultimately helping to improve the health and well-being of children,” Gombert-Labedens said.

She is scheduled to present her findings Wednesday at AASM's annual meeting in Seattle.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The Sleep Foundation has more on sleep strategies for children.

SOURCE: American Academy of Sleep Medicine, news release, June 3, 2025