4.2.2 Percentage of Canadian children and youth aged 10 to 17 years who get the recommended amount of sleep, less or more, Canada, 2013-2014

Age 10 to 11 years Age 12 to 15 years Age 14 to 15 years Age 16 to 17 years Age 10 to 17 years
Recommended 81 64.2 73.3 65.8 70
Short Sleep 17.8 34.9 24.6 31.6 28.9
Long Sleep 1.2 .9 2.1 2.6 .9

Source: CICH graphic created using data adapted from Chaput JP and Janssen I. Sleep duration estimates of Canadian children and adolescents. Journal of Sleep Research. 2016; 25:541-548. Data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey, 2013-2014.

The recommended amount of sleep for 10 to 13 year olds is 9 to 11 hours, and for 14 to 17 year olds it is 8 to ten hours per night.

Seventy percent of 10 to 17 year olds in Canada get the recommended amount of sleep on average, 29% do not get enough sleep and 1% slept longer than the recommended time.

Twelve to 13 year olds were least likely to get the recommended number of hours of sleep – only 64% did so. 35% did not get enough sleep.

Eighty-one percent of 10 to 11 year olds slept the recommended number of hours on average. About 18% slept less than that and 1% slept more.

Almost three-quarters, 73% of 14 to 15 year olds had the recommended number hours of sleep on average, 25% had shorter than the recommended number of hours and 2% had longer sleeps.

Children and youth on average sleep approximately one hour more on weekends compared to weekdays. Approximately 5% of the children and youth went to bed after midnight on weekdays and 31% did so on the weekend.

Implications
There is diversity in sleep needs among young people. A minority of people (<10%) naturally require less sleep than most people. The same is true for a minority of people who may naturally need more sleep than average. These characteristics can be inherited and can run in families. Not everyone is average when it comes to sleep requirements. Source: Léger D, du Roscoat E, Bayon V, Guignard R, Pâquereau J and Be F. Short sleep in young adults: Insomnia or sleep debt? Prevalence and clinical description of short sleep in a representative sample of 1004 young adults from France. Sleep Medicine 2011; 12(5): 454-462. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389945711000888