Addressing poor sleep could help to ‘close the gap’ for indigenous kids.
Dr Blunden is concerned that inadequate sleep is contributing to the known inequalities in health and education outcomes for those living in remote indigenous communities.
“Their sleep quality is disrupted or disturbed. Also we found that indigenous kids have less regular sleep times and therefore less regular wake times,” says Dr Blunden, Paediatric Sleep specialist at South Australia’s Appleton Institute.
Findings are consistent from four sleep studies with different remote indigenous communities and show indigenous kids have:
- poorer-quality sleep
- and more irregular sleep routines
than non-indigenous kids living in the same communities.
Dr Blunden’s research findings also show a link between sleep problems and school performance, attention and mood regulation.
“We know from previous studies of non-indigenous children that regularity in bed times and wake times is really important for circadian rhythms and therefore for performance outcomes and health and wellbeing,” says Dr Blunden.
“It would be logical to suspect that if these kids are having irregular wake times and they are getting up later in the morning, then they are less likely to go to school or at least jump up and be vibrant and ready to go to school.”
University of South Australia’s Professor Timothy Olds says sleep is a key ingredient for good health and that the costs can be very serious for people with poor sleep habits.
“There is really strong evidence that kids who have inadequate sleep or irregular sleep patterns go on later in life to have all sorts of physical and mental problems,” says Professor Olds.
Research has found that sleep issues are associated with higher probability of developing:
- Stress, anxiety and depression
- Overweight and Obesity
- Cardiovascular disease
Dr Blunden’s article published in The Medical Journal of Australia argues if we are aware of these high rates of sleep problems in remote indigenous communities we should take up to chance to change this, and improve health and education outcomes as a result.
Sleep education initiatives have worked with non-indigenous groups in the doctor’s past projects, but she is wary for the need to be culturally sensitive.
VACCHO indigenous health specialist Dr Karen Adams says sleep is important to all humans. She says it is vital to unpack the issues that are causing poor sleep in remote indigenous communities and that sleep education alone wont be a “silver bullet,”.
Dr Adams says “If the reason you are not sleeping is because you’re stressed, because maybe your family is poor, you have to address that. Sleep education is probably really good for well-resourced people.”
Dr Blunden says the issue of sleep raises “a whole range of stuff about parenting and the importance of sleep in our lives or not.” She says working collaboratively with each community is crucial.
“It requires a great deal of capacity to work with them, to share information and to understand their concerns,” she says, “but by no means should we not do it”.
