If your children are throwing temper tantrums
because sleep seems unappealing, consider that it may be OK to let them stay up
a little longer, as long as bedtime happens around the same time every night.
A new study suggests that consistency of young
children's bedtime is associated with positive performance on a variety of
intellectual tests. The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and
Community Health.
"If the child
prefers to go to sleep a little bit later, but it’s done regularly, that’s
still OK for them, according to the evidence," said Amanda Sacker,
professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University
College London.
The study
Researchers looked at
information about bedtimes and standardized test scores for more than 11,000
children who were part of the UK
Millennium Cohort Study, a
nationally representative study of children in the United Kingdom.
The Millennium Cohort Study followed children when
they were aged 3, 5 and 7, and included regular surveys and home visits.
Researchers asked parents about family routines such as bedtimes.
Children also took standardized tests in math, reading
and spatial abilities when they were 7 years old.
Researchers controlled for socioeconomic status in
addition to other factors such as discipline strategies, reading to children
and breakfast routines.
The
results
The study found that, in general, consistent
bedtimes were linked to better performance across all subject areas. This
was especially true for 7-year-old girls, regardless of socioeconomic
background - they tended to do worse on all three intellect measurements if
they had irregular bedtimes. Boys in this age group did not show the effect.
In both girls and boys, non-regular bedtimes at age 3
were linked with lower test scores, but not at age 5.
Bedtimes that had never been consistent for girls
at ages 3, 5, and 7 were associated with lower scores than regular bedtimes.
For any two of these ages, boys also tended to do worse on the tests if they
didn't go to sleep at a routine time.
These results "showed that it wasn’t going to bed
late that was affecting child’s development, it was the irregular
bedtimes that were linked to poorer developmental scores," Sacker
said.
Why did girls appear to be more strongly affected by
irregular bedtimes than boys? "It might be that girls are more susceptible
to elements of the psychosocial environment than boys, and hence also more
easily perturbed by inconsistent bedtime schedules," the study authors
wrote.
Sacker and colleagues had initially suspected
that late bedtimes would also be associated with poor cognitive test
performance, but this turned out to not matter, when other factors such as
socioeconomic status were controlled for.
Researchers found that, in general, children who had
irregular bedtimes or went to bed after 9 p.m. tended to come from lower
socioeconomic backgrounds than other study participants. These were the
children more likely to be from poor homes and have mothers with poorer mental
health. They were also less likely to have breakfast and be read to daily.
Limitations
The study used a large group of participants but still
only draws correlations, not causes. It is not proof that irregular sleep is a
direct driver of lower test scores.
Also, information about bedtimes came from parents'
self-reporting, and were not independently verified.
Researchers also did not assess the length of sleep
that the children typically had. Parents reported on what time their children
went to bed or whether there was no regular bedtime, but did not state exactly
how much sleep they received.
The answers to the questions of exactly what
represents a "regular" bedtime - is it OK to vary lights-out by an
hour? A half an hour? - are still unknown.
Implications
There are a few possible explanations for the
observations in the study. One is that children with an irregular bedtime may
not be getting good quality sleep. Also, the body's circadian rhythms can be
disrupted when a person doesn't have consistent sleep schedules.
Each day, as environmental stimuli influence changes
in the brain, we need sleep to allow fresh learning for the day to come,
according to the study. Cognitive impairment and lack of concentration are two
possible consequences of limited or disrupted sleep. Given the importance of
childhood development, study authors say, low-quality sleep in this critical
period could have long-term health effects.
The study supports other research showing that adults
also benefit from having consistent bedtimes.
"It not only helps with what’s gone on the day
before, but it also sets you in good stead for the day to come," Sacker
said.
That
makes it worth finding a consistent time to tuck in the little ones - and
yourself.
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