Make Sure Your Little One Gets Enough Sleep — Growth Hormone Peaks at This Time!

Jakarta – Sleep is not just a time of rest for children. Behind adequate and quality sleep hours, a child’s body is actually working to support their growth and development.

For children, sleep plays a major role in physical growth, brain development, and emotional health. While children sleep, the body releases growth hormone, which helps increase height, build body tissues, and repair body cells.

Therefore, pediatric specialist Ian Suryadi Suteja, M.Med Sc, SpA, says that during the growth period, children should ideally get deep sleep between 9:00 PM and 3:00 AM without interruption.

“Why is that? Because research shows that when a child is in deep sleep between 11 PM and 2 AM, their growth hormone levels are very high,” said Dr. Ian during the Pejuang Berat Badan Anak Sarihusada 2026 event on Monday (March 9, 2026).

“In fact, it can be four times higher than in children who frequently wake up at night and have their sleep disrupted between 11 PM and 2 AM,” he added.

To gain this benefit, Dr. Ian suggests that parents put their children to bed earlier.

“But the condition is that the child must be in deep sleep between 11 PM and 2 AM. To reach deep sleep at that time, the child should start sleeping around 9 PM,” he explained.

Dr. Ian also emphasized that parents must ensure there are no disturbances during a child’s deep sleep, such as snoring or allergies, because these can disrupt the child’s sleep cycle.

“For example, if parents keep waking the child up repeatedly, the child won’t sleep soundly. This will disturb the sleep cycle and interfere with the production of growth hormone,” he concluded.