Lack of Sleep May Hurt Kids' School Performance

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who don't get enough sleep may start to show it in their schoolwork, new research suggests.

In a study of 74 six- to twelve-year-olds, researchers found that the children generally had more trouble with their schoolwork and more attention problems during the week when they stayed up late each night.

Though that may not come as a surprise to some parents and teachers, the findings offer some of the first direct evidence that sleep loss can hurt school performance in healthy, well-functioning children.

"It's very much common sense," said Dr. Gahan Fallone, an associate professor at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri, and the lead author of the study.

"Sleep is important," he said in an interview. "Parents need to take it seriously and get their kids to bed at a reasonable hour."

The study, published in the medical journal Sleep, included healthy grade-schoolers without sleep or academic problems. During one week, they followed their normal sleep routine, with younger children getting about 10 hours each night and older children getting 8 to 9 hours. On another week, the children stayed up later than usual and got only 6.5 to 8 hours of sleep, depending on their age. On a third week, all of the children followed an "optimized" sleep schedule and got no fewer than 10 hours of sleep per night.

The children's teachers, who did not know which week each child was on a night-owl schedule, rated their schoolwork performance and behavior for each week.

Overall, Fallone and his colleagues found, the children had more difficulty with their schoolwork and were less attentive in class during their sleep-deprived week. They did not, however, act out in class or become more "hyperactive."

The findings, according to Fallone, suggest that when children are having difficulty at school, including attention problems, a look at their sleep habits is in order.

"We absolutely need to consider sleep as potentially contributing to these things," he said.

It's hard to say how much a sleep any one child may need, according to Fallone. But as a guide, he pointed out that the normal sleep habits of the children in this study -- at least 8 to 9 hours a night -- seemed to be serving them well.

Though it's possible that children can "catch up" on some sleep on the weekends, this is not a good habit to get into, Fallone said, since adequate sleep on all school nights is key.

SOURCE: Sleep, December 2005.