Panorama: Season 2017, Episode 8

2017 - 8: Sleepless Britain

Britain's kids are going to bed later and sleeping less, and hospital visits triggered by poor sleep have tripled in ten years. This is playing havoc with children's health and education and causing obesity, problems for parents and teachers, and even family breakdowns. In this film, reporter Jenny Kleeman finds that children's rocketing use of technology coupled with more lax modern parenting is creating an epidemic of poor sleep. Jenny visits a sleep charity in Doncaster that gets up to 200 emails a day from desperate parents. She meets Jayne, mum to a toddler who takes up to four hours to go to sleep, and follows them as they trial a firmer bedtime routine. At Honley High School in Yorkshire, Jenny investigates how poor sleep is affecting pupils' concentration and behaviour in class. Jenny also visits the sleep lab at Sheffield Children's Hospital, which has seen a tenfold increase in referrals in the last decade.