Kids who routinely stay up just one hour past their normal bedtime tend to be less alert and have diminished mental function compared to kids who go to bed an hour earlier, Israeli researchers have found.
The results have both health and educational implications, Avi Sadeh write in the journal Child Development. Other research has suggested kids today are getting less and less sleep, Sadeh noted.
“There are good reasons to believe that with today’s nightly temptations, many children are chronically sleep deprived,” he added.
“These findings suggest that moderate changes in sleep duration have detectable significant effects on children’s neuropsychology,” the authors conclude.
Currently, health experts say young school age children need at least nine hours of sleep per night.
Reuters