When children stay up late, they have more academic and attention problems at school, according to a new study from Brown Medical School to be published in the December issue of the journal SLEEP. The findings indicate that ensuring students get enough sleep is a significant step in helping them maximize learning ability in class as well as minimizing behaviors characteristic of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
"These findings have implications for how we understand attention problems in kids," said lead author Gahan Fallone, PhD, associate professor at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Mo. "The children in our study were functioning well at school prior to the restricted sleep schedule. It's likely that other kids who are physiologically or psychologically at risk for learning or attention problems could be even more vulnerable to the negative effects of inadequate sleep."
Dr. Fallone spoke at the American Medical Association's 24th annual Science Reporters Conference in Washington, D.C.
In the study, 74 healthy, academically successful children between the ages of 6 and 12 were monitored for a three-week period. During the first week of the study, they slept their normal amount. For the second two weeks, they went to bed a little earlier one week and much later than normal the other. Their teachers rated their academic performance and behavior at the end of each week. Results showed significantly lower ratings for academic performance and attention during the week that they slept fewer hours, despite the fact that teachers were not told which sleep schedule the kids were on.
To make sure the children actually slept their assigned number of hours at home, they kept sleep diaries, wore activity-monitoring devices and made bedtime and rise time phone calls to the E.P. Bradley Hospital Chronobiology and Sleep Research Laboratory in Providence, R.I., where the study was conducted. "Most of the children also came to the lab each weekend for overnight sleep recording and assessment of daytime sleepiness with polysomnography," Dr. Fallone said.
It's clear from previous research that sleep is a precious commodity for schoolchildren. "There's a pretty steady decline in the amount of sleep kids get once they start school, and it's scary to look at how little sleep kids actually get once they become teenagers," Dr. Fallone said.