Dr. Mercola December 08 2005 814 views
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.
There's absolutely no surprise here; kids who stay up late every night have a harder time with their schoolwork as well as paying attention -- even healthy children with no previous problems with grades or sleep.
However, although the overall school performance of kids who burned the midnight oil suffered more than the rest, researchers were quick to point out a lack of sleep didn't create more discipline problems.
Makes you wonder if these results, in part, explain why parents in growing numbers are tackling their child's sleep debt with the help of a useless drug, and not setting proper bedtimes.
Just remember, that lack of guidance and sleep could very well be contributing to the obesity epidemic, growing by leaps and bounds, particularly among children. You wonder how this occurs?
Well when you don't sleep enough your insulin levels are increased, and elevated insulin levels are one of the primary reasons why you can become overweight. Getting a good night's sleep is one of the best things you can do to keep your weight optimal and stay healthy. There are many tips on how to do this in my Total Health Program.
In addition to making sure your children get enough sleep, if you want to keep them healthy and well, I would advise you to: