Children’s learning ‘needs set bedtime’

MOST parents have faced a grumpy child who refuses to go to bed. But letting them stay up just a bit longer could damage their performance at school, according to an expert on child development.

Parents should stick to a fixed time, because their children’s reading and maths could suffer, warned Dr Yvonne Kelly of University College London.

She told the World Sleep Society that seven-year-old girls and three-year-olds of both sexes performed less well in tests if they did not have a regular bedtime.

Her findings also showed that three-year-old children were worse at regulating their emotions and more likely to be obese in later life if they did not go to bed at the same time each night.

Dr Kelly said children could even suffer ‘jet lag’ from going to bed at different times each day. She explained: ‘It is important that children go to bed at a fixed time, so they maintain their circadian rhythms. If you fly across time zones, it is difficult to function.

‘If you ask a child to effectively do the same thing by changing their sleeping patterns, they struggle even more than an adult would.

‘Sleep is important for learning from day to day and it is essential for children.’

Dr Kelly’s warning followed four years of research.

In a study of more than 11,000 children, published in the British Medical Journal, a team led by her found three-year-old children performed worse in tests of spatial awareness, reading skills and mathematics without a set bedtime.