Regular Bedtimes Linked to Better Language, Literacy, Math Skills, Study Says
RSSBy SLJ Staff
Parents who take a more laid back approach to bedtime may be doing more harm than they think. A new study says that children who get adequate sleep actually score higher on a range of developmental milestones. An abstract of the study, presented June 7 in San Antonio, TX, at SLEEP 2010, the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, says that among sleep habits, a regular bedtime was the most consistent predictor of positive developmental outcomes at four years of age. That means kids with parents who have rules about what time their child goes to bed score higher for "receptive and expressive language, phonological awareness, literacy, and early math abilities," the study says. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, preschoolers should get a minimum of 11 hours of sleep each night. Getting less than this recommended amount, the study's authors found, was linked with lower scores on phonological awareness, literacy, and early math skills. The research shows that many kids aren't getting the recommended amount of sleep, which may have negative consequences for their development and school achievement. "Getting parents to set bedtime routines can be an important way to make a significant impact on children's emergent literacy and language skills," says lead author Erika Gaylor, an early childhood policy researcher at Silicon Valley-based SRI International, an independent, nonprofit research institute. "Pediatricians can easily promote regular bedtimes with parents and children, behaviors which in turn lead to healthy sleep." Gaylor recommends that parents help their preschoolers establish routines such as reading books and telling stories to better ease the transition to bedtime. The study involved a national sample of about 8,000 children who completed a direct assessment at four years of age as part of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. The research included information collected from parents through phone interviews when their child was nine months old and again when their child was four. Developmental milestones were assessed using a shortened set of items from standardized assessments. "This is by far the largest study of its kind to date," Gaylor says. "Previous studies have included up to 500 children in this age group. It's fortunate to have this rich dataset available for analysis." Last year, a study in the August 2009 issue of Sleep Medicine also emphasized the importance of an early bedtime and consistent bedtime routine for children. It said that kids with a bedtime after 9 p.m. took longer to fall asleep and had a shorter total sleep time. Children without a consistent bedtime routine also were reported to get less sleep.
SLEEP 2010 is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, and brings together an international body of more than 5,000 leading clinicians and scientists in the fields of sleep medicine and sleep research. At the conference, more than 1,100 research abstract presentations showcase new findings that contribute to the understanding of sleep and the effective diagnosis and treatment of disorders such as insomnia, narcolepsy and sleep apnea.
