Many parents believe their children are getting plenty of sleep—but new research from Brown University suggests that notion may be far from the truth.
In their study published in the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics, Brown researchers tracked the sleep habits of 102 elementary school children in Rhode Island.
The team found that while 83 percent of parents believed their kids were sleeping enough, only 14 percent of those children actually met national sleep guidelines once their real sleep time was measured.
“What parents often don’t see is how long it takes for kids to fall asleep or how often they wake up during the night,” explained paper author and behavioral scientist professor Diana Grigsby-Toussaint in a statement.
To capture a more accurate picture, researchers equipped the children with wrist-worn accelerometers for a week.
These devices recorded when they went to bed, how long it took them to fall asleep, how often they woke up and how much total sleep they got. Parents were also asked to complete surveys and daily sleep diaries.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children aged 6–12 should sleep between 9 and 12 hours per night.
Yet, the data showed that children were getting an average of eight hours and 20 minutes of actual sleep—more than an hour less than what parents estimated. Parents reported their children slept over nine and a half hours each night.
One major discrepancy came from how long children were awake without parents realizing it. On average, kids were awake for 38 minutes per night, while parents estimated fewer than five minutes of wakefulness.
The study also revealed differences across racial and ethnic lines. Of the children studied, 56 percent were Latino, and this group tended to get less rest than their non-Latino peers.
Latino children averaged just over eight hours of sleep per night, compared to eight and a half hours among non-Latino children.
Only 4.4 percent of Latino children met the recommended sleep guidelines, while 22.8 percent of non-Latino children did.
Interestingly, Latino caregivers were more likely to express concerns about their child’s sleep, often noting trouble staying asleep, while non-Latino parents tended to underreport potential sleep problems.
Grigsby-Toussaint noted that cultural factors may play a role. Later bedtimes, co-sleeping, and room sharing—practices more common in some Latino households—may affect both sleep duration and how parents perceive their children’s rest.
“Sleep is only one measure of children’s health and wellbeing,” Grigsby-Toussaint told Newsweek. “Feeling loved and nurtured is also very important for children’s growth and development. As such, my advice would be for parents to continue to center cultural values in their approaches to ensuring routines that are beneficial for all aspects of a child’s life.”
The researchers said their findings underscore the importance of better communication between healthcare providers and families about sleep health.
“Our work indicates that we need to improve our communication about sleep with families to capture the multiple dimensions of it,” Grigsby-Toussaint said.
The team, which also included scientists from Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School and Rhode Island Hospital, acknowledged that wrist devices have their own limitations—sometimes mistaking quiet wakefulness for sleep—but said the overall trend was clear: most children are sleeping less than their parents think.
To promote healthier sleep, Grigsby-Toussaint said there are several cues that parents can look for, such as changes in behavior.
“For example, a child may be more withdrawn or irritable in a way that deviates from their typical personality, or [they] may be sleepy during the day,” she explained.
“If these changes are prolonged, and perhaps not tied to a specific change in routine—for example a family vacation with lax bedtimes—then it might be worth consulting with a professional.”
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Reference
Rodriguez Acevedo, A., Story, D., Werner, L., Barker, D. H., McGeary, J. E., Dunsiger, S. I., & Grigsby-Toussaint, D. S. (2025). Associations between objectively and subjectively measured sleep outcomes among elementary school children in Rhode Island. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2025.1622943
