At this very moment, we are in the myths of the Great Sleep Recession.

Children and adolescents who suffer from sleep problems can have a wide range of issues

negatively impacting their day-to-day lives.

So how can clinicians enhance their patient's quality of life by improving sleep outcomes?

Well, this is exactly what Mara and I are going to dive into

on this episode of the Carlat Psychiatry Podcast

brought to you by the Child Psychiatry Team.

I'm Dr. Josh Fader, the editor-in-chief of the Carlatt Child Psychiatry Report and co-author

of the Child Medication Fact Book for Psychiatric Practice, second edition, which just came out.

And I'm Mara Government, a licensed clinical social worker in Southern California with a private practice

and an avid reader and listener of the Carlet Child Psychiatji Report.

You might be wondering why Dr. Fader referred to our current time period as the Great Sleep Recession.

He said that because over the past 20 years,

adolescents have been reporting less and less sleep each year.

And the likelihood of reporting less than or equal to seven hours of sleep per night is more pronounced in certain adolescent groups.

Definitely. For instance, a multi-centered cross-sectional study of U.S. teens analyzed data obtained,

recorded every year from 1991 to 2012.

In addition to finding a steadily decreasing trend in hours of sleep per night,

they found that girls, racial ethnic minorities, students living in urban areas and teens of lower socioeconomic status, were more likely to report getting less than or equal to seven hours

of sleep per night compared to boys.

What about middle school age children? Are they getting enough sleep at night too?

Well, not exactly. The prevalence of short sleep duration among middle school students

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