On some nights, Mr Michael Devakishen resorts to certain tactics to keep his 11-year-old daughter awake.

Beverly has a packed schedule of ballet and piano lessons and science, maths and Chinese tuition. There's daily school homework on top of that.

'Sometimes, when she has to stay up late because of so much homework, both my wife and I will keep her company by making noises in the kitchen, or singing songs just to keep her awake,' said Mr Devakishen, 41, a secondary school teacher.

While the Primary 5 pupil says she enjoys her extra-curricular activities, she also feels tired often.

Like Beverly, children all over Singapore aren't getting enough shut-eye on school nights.

In a poll of 200 primary school pupils by The Sunday Times, 62 said they slept seven hours or less a night, 64 managed eight hours while 74 had nine hours or more of rest.

Nearly half said they felt they weren't getting enough sleep each day, and homework and tuition were the top reasons they cited for turning in late.

'It is definitely a cause for concern,' said Dr Jenny Tang, deputy head of paediatric medicine at KK Women's and Children's Hospital, of children who suffer from sleep deprivation.

She has seen an increasing number of them checking in for sleep apnea, chronic sleep insufficiency because of school schedules, or behavioural sleep disorders.

The recommended number of hours a child between the ages of six and 12 should sleep a day is 10 to 11 hours, said Dr Tang.

Teens need nine hours while adults can get by with about eight.

Primary school pupils aren't the only ones lacking sleep. A poll of 940 students in 26 secondary schools last year revealed that 80 per cent of them were getting by with less than eight hours of sleep on school days, while only 2.6 per cent were getting the recommended nine hours.

A new study by the Asia-Pacific Paediatric Sleep Alliance also showed that infants and toddlers in Singapore got less sleep than their counterparts in the West.

The average bedtime for a Singaporean toddler is 9.45pm compared with about 8.30pm in Western countries.

Ask parents why they're not putting their kids to bed earlier during the week and they point the finger at schools which load the children with too much homework and activities.

Some kids make up for it during weekends by waking up later than usual.

Kathirevan Kalyanperumal, 10, has supplementary lessons, plus track and field and basketball training every day of the week, which means he ends up sleeping just 6-1/2 hours a night.

He is so tired that he often falls asleep on the bus ride to school and sometimes dozes off in class.

And he doesn't use weekends to catch up on sleep either. 'I force myself to stay awake on weekends to watch TV,' said the Primary 5 pupil. 'I won't be able to do it on school nights.'

His mother, Madam K. Bhargavi, 54, said that while Kathirevan used to sleep at 9.30pm, supplementary classes to prepare him for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) have meant pushing back his bedtime.

'I feel sorry for him because kids nowadays have so many things to do at school,' said the housewife.

Teachers say they see more children coming to school bleary-eyed; some even nod off in class.

'Parents want tuition for the children, teachers need to give them homework. Everyone is pushing the kids for results. It's a vicious circle,' said a Chinese-language primary school teacher who did not want to be named.

It's also not uncommon for children to stay back after school for two hours of co-curricular activities (CCA) at least once a week and hour-long remedial lessons three times a week.

An Education Ministry spokesman said that lower primary pupils are taught in Health Education that they should cultivate good daily habits, including having at least eight hours of sleep a day.

Mrs Kathryn Koh, principal of Anglo-Chinese School (Junior), said that her pupils tell her they have a lot to do, especially those in Primary 5 and Primary 6.

'It is common to hear pupils complaining about the difficulties of balancing extra enrichment classes and school work,' she said.

She added that play is an important part of a child's development. 'Some parents pack a child's day to 'keep him occupied', as they are not comfortable with the thought of their child 'idling' at home.'

Mr Martin Tan, principal of Anderson Primary School, said schools are conscious of the need for pupils to have sufficient rest and family time.

'It boils down to time management and this is where parents need to work closely with their children to ensure they are spending their time at home wisely and making the right choices,' he said.

Indeed, discipline is lacking in many homes today, and that could be why children are going to bed later, say teachers.

'The children's parents work and the maids can't control them, so they often do whatever they wish in the afternoons,' said one primary school teacher.

Mr Devakishen suggests that schools introduce a flexible schedule where homework is given out three days in advance.

'This way, the children would have more time to complete their homework and their schedules could be worked out better,' he said.

If good grades are what parents and teachers are after, they should know that sleep deprivation can affect a child's attention, memory, decision-making and creativity.

It can also cause him to become more irritable and can even lead to behavioural problems like hyperactivity and disobedience.

As Primary 3 pupil Marcus Jerome Devakishen put it: 'Sometimes, I just want to sleep a little longer in the morning.'

Additional reporting by Alvin Lim and Priscilla Goy

'I'm normally given lots of homework. After work, I study some more'	'I feel stressed with all the homework and assessments I have to do'
She wakes up at 6am and boards the school bus from her condominium in Simei at 6.40am. After co-curricular activities in the afternoon, she heads home - at different times during the week, depending on the activity - and 'rushes' to do her homework, go for tuition or religious classes, before calling it a night at 10pm. This is a typical school day for 10-year-old Asma Afiqah Zulkifli, a pupil at Gongshang Primary School. She said she stays up late because of a heavier workload this year as she is preparing for the Primary 4 streaming examinations in October. 'I'm normally given lots of homework. After work, I study some more,' she said. Despite having little free time and getting two hours less than the recommended amount of sleep for children her age, she said she does not feel tired in school and thinks she gets enough sleep. 'Sleeping at 10pm is just right,' she chirped. She makes it a point to finish her work before watching TV or playing badminton with friends. Her mother, Ms Norwati Jirkaseh, said: 'As parents, we also ask her to complete her work. But sometimes, I feel sorry that they don't have time to just relax and read a storybook.' The 42-year-old office manager added that she sometimes feels teachers pile on too much homework. Once, Asma stayed up until 11.30pm to finish her work. But she herself is responsible for staying up past 10pm on some nights. 'Sometimes when I watch television, it gets addictive so I end up sleeping late, but I will try to stop the habit as it is unhealthy for the mind,' she said.	It is 11.30pm when Mahatir Faizal hits the sack. He wakes up at 6am to board a private van which gets him to school by 7.30am. His school day culminates with supplementary classes but they are followed by tuition or sports training. Mahatir, 11, has tuition for all four of his core subjects - Malay, English, Maths and Science. When he gets home to a terrace house in Pasir Ris, he has dinner before grappling with homework until bedtime. Is 6-1/2 hours of sleep enough for this active boy? No, said the Primary 5 pupil at Gongshang Primary School in Tampines, although he said he does not feel very tired in school. But he said: 'I feel stressed with all the homework and assessments I have to do.' His father, Mr Faizal Salleh, 40, a fleet manager at Singapore Airlines, tries to organise the boy's tuition on alternate days so as not to overload him. He said Mahatir rarely has problems waking up in the morning. 'We always reason with him over the importance of studying hard,' he said. 'He knows that if he is not responsible enough to wake up on time, he will miss his transport.' His mother, Madam Norsham Noh, 40, a primary school teacher, also helps with his homework. Mahatir sometimes enjoys a brief respite before bedtime: a game of carrom with his family. 'I love playing games with my family and talking to my parents at the end of a long day,' he said.

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on July 20, 2008.