Sleep Enough For Schoolchildren

Sleep deprivation leads to a temporary loss in IQ levels, reasoning and memory, and even makes kids a little hyper. A lot of attention deficit symptoms are really due to sleep deprivation.

Elementary and middle school students have more learning and attention problems when they sleep eight hours or less at night.

Reducing the amount of sleep students get at night has a direct impact on their performance at school during the day. According to classroom teachers, elementary and middle school students who stay up late exhibit more learning and attention problems.

Those students who sleep eight hours or less are having the most trouble recalling old material, learning new lessons and completing high-quality work. Teachers also reported that these students had more difficulty paying attention.

Inadequate sleep has negative consequences for teens, resulting in more depression, lower grades and more frequent car crashes due to drowsy driving. At the same time, kids and teens are "losing" sleep to cell phones, computers, television, after-school activities, larger homework loads and increased consumption of beverages such as coffee and caffeinated soft drinks.

Disturbed sleep in school children negatively affects their school performance and various neurocognitive abilities.

Poor sleep should be considered as one potentially contributing factor when there is poor student performance.

So remember, when it comes to your child, eight is definitely not enough. Hitting the hay for about ten hours will help to keep your child's school performance at its peak.

Most children need at least nine hours of sleep a night, but often get inadequate amounts with poor consequences. And while some sleep disorders can be fixed with medical treatment, sleep patterns raise important issues for educators. As children move into adolescence, they tend to get less sleep per day. Overall, the researchers found that disturbed sleep was more common than many thought.