Being serious about sleep
CHILDREN need more sleep than adults – this is a generally accepted notion, with newborn babies spending most of their days asleep and school-going children having to be in bed by a set time every night.
We know sleep plays an important part in growth and development, but do we know just to what extent is this true?
Getting enough sleep is very important for children who are at the peak learning periods of their lives.
Scientifically speaking
A joint research project by New York University’s School of Medicine and Peking University’s Shenzhen Graduate School last year found significantly more new connections between neurons in sleeping mice that were trained to perform a new task.
Sleep-deprived mice performed poorly on the task in comparison to their rested mates. This led researchers to conclude that brain activity was enhanced with enough rest, spurring them to expand the findings to the human realm – we need sleep to effectively learn.
This study is not the first to espouse the importance of sleep in learning and memory, but it puts things into a simple scientific perspective. Sleep promotes new synaptic connections, which are essential in information retention.
Getting enough sleep, therefore, is very important for children who are at the peak learning periods of their lives.
A separate research project by the University of Sheffield found that “sleeping like a baby” was vital for learning through studying babies’ ability to repeat taught tasks with hand puppets. Babies who slept within four hours after learning were better able to remember and repeat what they learnt the next day.
This brings to attention the potential benefits of bedtime stories. Reading to your child is important, but these researchers conclude that the window right before sleep might be the optimum time for your child
to absorb new information.
Strict slumber
This does not mean that your child should be cramming in information before bed. Rather, it stresses the importance of getting a good night’s rest for him to process all he has learnt that day and refresh himself for tomorrow’s learning.
Having a strict bedtime can help establish a healthy sleeping pattern. Children between the ages of five and 11 require 10 to 12 hours of sleep every night. Set an appropriate bedtime with a routine during which all technological devices should be turned off to prepare the child for bed.
This routine can include a shower followed by a bedtime story once he is tucked in.
Once this routine becomes a habit, it is vital that it be kept that way – do not let bedtimes vary by more than an hour, even if it is the school holidays and your child is begging to stay up late. Your child may be tired once he begins schooling and require extra sleep while he is acclimating to these new activities.
Children need less sleep as they enter their teenage years, but it is still essential that they get at least eight hours of sleep a night.
Older children tend to have more flexible sleeping patterns, but sleep is also needed throughout puberty to facilitate hormonal and physical changes.
After all, lack of sleep can contribute to behaviour and concentration issues in school and may affect the teenager’s overall mood.
Sleep should not be taken lightly. As a parent, you can help ensure your child is getting the sleep he needs to grow and develop into a physically and mentally fit adult.