Sleep Recommendations for Children: A Need for More Data

We wish to comment on Matricciani et al's1 interesting historical survey of recommended and reported sleep durations and the spirited rejoinder it elicited from Dr Owens and coauthors. We believe that both groups make important points, and we add perspective from our recent experimental findings. Matricciani et al1 found that, over the last century, age-specific recommended sleep durations decreased by 0.71 minute/year, almost the same as the reported sleep duration decline of 0.73 minute/year. Importantly, recommended sleep was consistently ∼30 minutes greater than actual (estimated) sleep. Matricciani et al note that these recommendations, although surely well-meaning, were not evidence based. The …