The number of children given sleeping pills has doubled in seven years – and even BABIES are given powerful hypnotics, shocking NHS figures reveal
Children are in the grip of a sleep crisis, with the number of pills given out doubling in just seven years.
The stresses of modern life – including the widespread use of phones and tablets – have left young people unable to rest at night.
According to official NHS data, prescriptions for sleeping pills have soared, with more than 700,000 prescribed by 2022.
This is a quarter increase in three years and more than double the 339,848 in 2016.
Experts believe the struggle to disconnect from modern life is fueling a sleep crisis, with stresses such as the cost of living and the impact of Covid leaving a generation of children struggling to sleep.
According to official figures, children aged 11 received the pills most often, accounting for 80,274 prescriptions or more than 1,500 per week.
Separate statistics show that hundreds of teenagers are being admitted to hospital with sleep disorders, with the number of admissions for conditions such as insomnia almost doubling in the same period.
NHS figures for 2022 show that doctors wrote 716,464 prescriptions for hypnotics – sleeping tablets and liquid medicines – to children under 16 in England.
This is an increase from 643,998 in the previous twelve months, from 570,147 in 2020 and 339,848 in 2016.
Zoe Bailie of The Mix, a young people’s charity, said: ‘The continued increase in the number of young people being prescribed sleeping pills is extremely worrying, but unfortunately not surprising in the context of the enormous pressures young people face.
‘Due to the long-term effects of Covid, the fear and uncertainty caused by the cost of living and the downsizing of youth services, under-25s are struggling to cope, and this is having a knock-on effect on sleeping conditions. patterns.’
Under NHS guidelines, doctors should not normally prescribe sleep medications to children unless it is for a short-term treatment.
But parents received almost 14,000 prescriptions a week for drugs to help their child sleep.
About 154 of the recipes were for babies who had not yet reached their first birthday.
It comes after the children’s commissioner warned that the challenges of modern life are taking an unprecedented toll on young people’s emotional wellbeing.
Under NHS guidelines, doctors should not normally prescribe sleep medications to children unless it is for a short-term treatment. But parents received almost 14,000 prescriptions a week for drugs to help their child sleep. The NHS currently advises that children with long-term sleep problems can take melatonin (pictured) if a specialist recommends it
Earlier this year, Rachel de Souza said the NHS is ill-equipped to deal with the fallout caused by ‘harmful’ social media, a cost of living crisis and the pandemic.
She said this generation of children has faced “uniquely uncertain and challenging times”, highlighting that an increasing number of children are “being exposed to the harmful effects of social media, cyberbullying and online exploitation”.
“I don’t think it is an exaggeration to talk about a crisis in children’s mental health and the services needed to support them,” she said in the report’s foreword.
Dr. Susie Davies, founder of Parents Against Phone Addiction in Young Adolescents, said: ‘The increasing use of potentially addictive hypnotics in children highlights the negative effect that 24/7 exposure to technology has on our children’s sleep quality and quantity.
‘Quality sleep is fundamental to good mental health, while poor sleep is linked to low mood, anxiety, reduced concentration and obesity. It is vital that we work together to help our children turn off devices at night and get better quality sleep.”
An NHS spokesperson said: ‘These figures show the continued unprecedented pressures children and young people face and reflect the increased demand for children’s mental health care – the NHS is providing mental health care to more children than ever before and is expanding provision as quickly as possible . possible within the current five-year financing arrangements.
‘We know that more needs to be done to meet increased demand and that is why plans are in place to ensure that more than half of pupils have access to an NHS mental health support team by spring 2025 which provides early support in schools – significantly earlier than the original target.”