About 45 percent of Singaporean parents think their children are not getting enough sleep, higher than the 26 percent of parents from Western countries, said a new study in Monday's English daily The Straits Times.

The Asia-Pacific Paediatric Sleep Alliance surveyed the guardians of more than 30,000 infants and toddlers up to three years old worldwide.

The survey found that Singaporean parents are around the Asian average when it comes to fretting over things like snoring and night-time waking, said The Straits Times.

The average bedtime for a Singaporean toddler is 9:45 p.m., while it is about 8:30 p.m. in the West, said the study.

"We don't really know why Asian children sleep less," Dr Daniel Goh, who co-authored the study, was quoted as saying.

Culturally, it may be the norm for Asians to stay up later and work later than people in Western countries, he said.

The study found higher rates of Asian children share their parents' rooms, which might be correlated with later bedtimes, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2008)