Perhaps the best prescription for the school bully is a heavy dose of Z's.
New research from the University of Michigan's Sleep Disorders Center shows that children who are bullies or have behavior problems at school are twice as likely as well-behaved children to have daytime sleepiness or sleep disorders such as apnea.
The study, published in Sleep Medicine, showed that sleepiness -- which could be caused by disordered breathing problems like snoring or sleep apnea -- seemed to be the biggest driver of the behavior problems.
While the reasons for bullying are numerous, sleep experts say there's plenty of evidence to suggest that sleep deprivation leads to bad behavior.
"Inadequate sleep, which causes mood disturbance, might result not just in performance, but behavior changes," said Dr. Conrad Iber, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. "An elementary school child who snores from having large tonsils is more likely to have what is interpreted by teachers as attention deficit disorder or focus problems."
To improve sleep quality, experts say parents should remove TVs, phones and computers from kids' bedrooms; encourage children to get an adequate amount of uninterrupted sleep each night (11 to 13 hours a night for preschoolers and 10 to 11 hours nightly for school-age kids) and make getting enough sleep a household priority.
