new delhi indian children are going to bed much later and are getting lesser sleep than their caucasian counterparts a largescale study which compared the sleep patterns of children in caucasian and asian countries found substantial differences in sleep patterns in young childrenauthored by jodi mindell from saint josephs university in philadelphia and presented at sleep 2008 the meeting of the associated professional sleep societies apss in baltimore us the study concluded that indian children obtained less overall sleep had later bedtimes and were more likely to share their rooms than their caucasian counterpartsof the children studied 3892 were from india 4505 from the us 1073 from australia 1081 from new zealand 501 from canada 997 from malaysia 1034 from philippines 1001 from singapore and 1049 from hong kong the study also included 800 british children 1036 from korea 896 from taiwan 967 from indonesia 872 from japan and 7505 from chinathis study is the first to look at sleep in infants and toddlers crossculturally and the results are astonishing said dr mindell we found vast differences in amounts of sleep and parents perceptions of sleep problems across countries it needs to be investigated if these differences are simply the result of differing cultural practices and what is the impact if any of these vast differences she added according to dr vikram sarabhai sleep medicine expert from max hospital indian children could be getting two hours less sleep than their caucasian counterpartsits true that indian children are getting much lesser sleep as a result their growth is suffering growth hormones made by the pituitary gland that is responsible for increasing glucose uptake in muscle enhancing protein synthesis in the liver and muscle and causing the breakdown of fat is released primarily during sleep when sleeping hours are compromised so is growth he saiddr m s kanwar senior consultant of critical care and sleep medicine at apollo hospital added one major factor for this is the homework load on children in india this makes them stay up late also kids in india are much more hooked to late night tv as against those in europe and us where families go to sleep by 10pm which indian family sleeps at 10pm children in india are also taking less interest in outdoor sports experts say parents should follow a consistent bedtime routine set aside 20 to 30 minutes to get your child ready to go to sleep each night interact with your child at bedtime dont let the tv computer or video games take your place