In a study of 74 grade school children without sleep or academic problems, researchers found that the children had more trouble with their schoolwork and more difficulty paying attention when they stayed up late each night.
First Direct Evidence
These findings offer some of the first direct evidence that sleep loss can hurt school performance.
During one week, the children followed their normal sleep routine -- about 10 hours a night for younger children and eight to nine hours for the older ones.
Throughout another week, the children stayed up later than usual, and got only 6.5 to eight hours of sleep. On a third week, the children followed an "optimized" sleep schedule of at least 10 hours of sleep per night.
Rated on Performance
The children's teachers, who did not know which sleep schedule any given child was on, rated their schoolwork performance and behavior for each week.
Overall, the children had the most difficulty with their schoolwork and were less attentive during their sleep-deprived week. Adequate sleep on all school nights seemed to be the key to children performing their best.
