The results of Shanghai’s first survey about sporting activity and the sleep health of preschool children have been released. Conducted by the First Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, the survey shows that Shanghai’s three to six-year old children are on a par with children in Canada and the Netherlands in terms of the duration of sporting activities undertaken, but their sleep time is among the shortest in the nation. The survey sample included 9,833 children from Pudong, Jingan, Songjiang and Minhang districts.

“Age three to six is a period in which children undergo important changes in physical and mental growth, so nutrition, sport and sleep are all crucial aspects in this phase,” explains the director of the survey, Jing Hua.“In the modern world, parents are aware of the significance of sport but sleep time is often compromised or neglected.”

Parents in Shanghai are especially concerned with children’s physical growth. This can be seen from the prevalence of swimming classes for preschool kids. Compared to data from 2010, the percentage of overweight and obese children haveboth dropped by about two percentage points. The time spent on sports of Shanghai children isequal to counterparts in a number of developed countries.

The survey, meanwhile, also reveals a worrisome problem that is a lack of sleep time. According to a mother whose child goes to a private bilingual kindergarten, almost every student in class is enrolled in at least one sport class, one art class, one math class or one English class. For her child, the time after school is packed with a two-hour extracurricular class and an online English private tutoring session. The child normally goes to bed at 10. Waking up at 7 the next morning, the child only has nine hours of sleep, which is inadequate at that age.

The average sleeping time for preschool children has taken a dive from 11.4 hours in 2006 to today’s 9.5 hours, as suggested by a series of surveys. The recommended sleeptime for children in this age range is 10-13 hours of high quality sleep. Sadly, due to the competitive schooling system and many other social factors, children in Shanghai do not have the luxury of enjoying an adequate time to sleep. This problem deserves examination and effective measures to be taken on the part of all members of society.