Good Sleep Makes Children Smarter; Research Shows.
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- January 29, 2024
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While the latest inventions have provided many facilities, they have also affected our healthy activities and routines. Some time ago, due to the non-availability of gadgets, children used to go to bed on time at night and get sound sleep, but now children have screens all around them, which is affecting their sleep routines and if sleep is less, cognitive ability starts to decrease.
Research by psychologists affiliated with McGill University and Douglas Mental Health University says that children who get a good night's sleep perform better in school in math and language subjects, which will help them in the future. Children have been considered a strong predictor of academic achievement if they get sound sleep.
Experts associated with research published in the scientific journal 'Journal Sleep Medicine' say that a good and quality night's sleep is extremely important for children, which has a positive effect on their academic performance, especially with good sleep. Children's math abilities and language learning skills can improve.
Research
In the research for the scientific journal, psychologists monitored the sleep of 75 school children aged 7 to 11 years for five nights in one part of the study. A device (actigraphy) was attached to their wrists to measure the quality of sleep. It collected records of children's movements during sleep and after sleep. "To analyze the link between sleep and academic achievement, we averaged children's sleep data for five nights and compared it to their report card grades," says Dr. Ruit Gruber, head of the research.
Children can have many sleep problems that we are not aware of, says child psychiatrist Dr. Gruber. We found in this experiment that the mental skills of planning, multitasking, and attention span were the most affected by the effects of sleep on academic performance, and that these mental skills were more effective in math and language learning than in other subjects.
From the results of the study, it was clear that children's sleeping patterns did not affect science and art subjects, but mathematics, English or language subjects were affected by them.
Parents Role
In fact, parents are also to blame for this; they neglect to free their children from the screen. If the child is watching TV late at night or studying till late at night due to watching TV and does not get enough sleep till morning, then instead of paying full attention in the class, he must be fighting his sleep and not thinking of subjects like mathematics and physics.
Parents should understand that children's minds are surprisingly busy during sleep, as children's minds consolidate memories or practice skills they learn while awake. According to New York University research, when you learn something new, your performance improves after waking up from a good night's sleep.
Sleep Affects on Academic Performance
Inadequate sleep does not necessarily affect academic performance. If your child is an athlete, the simplest thing that can improve his performance is sleep. Some time ago, in a study by Stanford University in the United States, it was revealed that football players who sleep 10 hours a night for 7 to 8 weeks have their average performance and stamina increase dramatically. Similar positive effects were observed in tennis and swimming players during the study, after which the researchers declared it the best method for all sports.
Lack of sleep can cause autism-like symptoms in children and they lose the ability to react quickly to something. It was revealed in a study of an American journal, the Journal of Paediatrics, that children aged 7 to 8 who do not get 8 hours of sleep at night become agitated and have an unstable personality.
Children have to read and learn a lot in a short period of time; this is only possible when they are mentally alert and ready to learn. Sleep is essential for health anyway, and a healthy mind resides in a healthy body.