What is a "sleep debt"?

What is a "sleep debt"?

Gary Feldman (Medical Director, Stramski Disorders Center, Miller Children's Hospital ) gives expert video advice on: What are the benefits of sleep for children?; What is a normal sleep pattern?; How much sleep does my child need every day? and more...

We do accumulate what we call "sleep debt". So for instance if we have a bad night and we don't sleep well, we have a debt that we have to pay back, nd that debt doesn't go away. It will never go away unless you sleep. Sleep debt does not diffuse away with activity, with living. At some point, you have to pay sleep-debt back. So, if a child has not had a good sleep, or you've been traveling, whatever the case is, you can anticipate that that child is going to need to catch up. That may be in the form of either a longer nighttime sleep the following night, or maybe longer naps or more frequent naps the subsequent morning.