School kids 'need 9 hours of sleep'
Young children who sleep for less than nine hours per night and have no bedtime routine do not perform as well in school as their peers, the results of a new study indicate.
Spanish researchers looked at almost 150 children aged six and seven from different schools. The children's parents filled out questionnaires on their sleeping habits and their academic skills were assessed by experts.
The study found that those who slept for less than nine hours per night had poorer general skills, such as communication. However, they also had poorer cognitive skills, such as memory and motivation.
The researchers noted that many of the children were either getting home late - after 9pm - at least three nights a week or were going to bed after 11pm at least four nights a week. While most were getting almost eight hours of sleep per night, the team found that they had a ‘worse performance than those that sleep nine to 11 hours'.
"Taking into account the results obtained, we believe that more than nine hours sleep and a nightly routine favours academic performance," explained researcher, Ramón Cladellas, of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
He said that less sleep ‘distorts children's performance in linguistic knowledge, grammar and spelling rules, and key aspects in the organisation and comprehension of texts, to name a few examples'.
Mr Cladellas added that these are ‘basic skills', therefore if a child has problems here, this may have long lasting repercussions in a range of school subjects.
"Nowadays, there is great concern because children are glued to the television, computers and videogames, but the same importance is not given to them going to bed at the same time every night," he added.
Details of these findings are published in the Spanish journal, Cultura y Educación Sep 2011
