Are Kids Doing Too Much? The Importance of Sleep

Busy Kids

In today's society the temptation is to keep our kids busy
all the time. My wife and I have been guilty of that
ourselves. But it is so important to build downtime into
both ours and our children's schedules. It is necessary for
healthy development of the body and the mind.

The ultimate form of downtime is sleep. We obviously need
to ensure our kids get enough sleep. We all need to sleep.
As much as I would like to have more hours in the day,
robbing them from my sleep time never seems to work. There
are physiological reasons for this.

Some people need less sleep than others and you need
different amounts of sleep at different points in your
life. For kids, sleep is incredibly important for their
mental and physical development.

Recharge the batteries

Sleep is literally a time for the brain to recharge. Just
like a rechargeable battery is 'filled up' again by putting
it on the charger, so does sleep recharge our brains.
Activity during the day actually uses up brain molecules
required for signaling and processing thoughts. These
molecules are remade during sleep to fill the reservoir
back up for use the next day.

Studies show that growth hormones in the brain are at lower
levels after sleep deprivation. These hormones are
necessary for allowing the brain to create new connections
during learning and they help maintain the connections
already there. Sleep regenerates these in the brain,
allowing enhanced performance the following day.

Improve Memory

In addition to sleep effecting how you perform the next
day, sleep also effects how well you learned the previous
day. Huh? How can a good night of sleep affect what you
learned the day before?

Sleep is the time that memories are consolidated and
strengthened. Even though your kids may get a good night
sleep before school, they will retain what they learn in
school if they get another good night sleep after school.

Studies show that the brain actually replays activities of
the day during sleep and that this replaying strengthens
the ability to recall the experience. This applies to
academic and physical experiences. Meaning that sleep helps
consolidate 'muscle memory' from motor skills practiced
that day as well intellectual memory. Whether it's playing
sports, playing a musical instrument, or learning math, the
skills are enhanced by sleep.

In a related study, researchers took two groups of people,
taught them an identical task, and tested them on it three
days later. One group was sleep deprived the night after
they learned the task and the other group was not. Both
groups got adequate sleep for two more nights so that
neither was sleep deprived on the day of testing.

The group that did not get enough sleep the night after the
task, performed much more poorly on the test than the other
group the received adequate sleep after learning. This
demonstrates again that consolidating experiences the night
after learning is just as important as getting adequate
sleep before learning.

Sleep set's your kids up for a successful day by improving
their attention and then it drives those experiences home
by replaying them again.

Improve Grades

It should be no surprise that the quality of children's
grades relate to the quantity of their sleep. Several
studies have shown a strong correlation between performance
in school and sleep schedule. Kids that get less sleep have
worse grades.

In some studies the difference in sleep is not that large
between the 'A and B' student's and the 'C and below'
students. Some studies show that the average difference
between these groups of students is only about 30 minutes
of total sleep time. This suggests that a little extra
sleep goes a long way.

An important factor that many parents may not have
considered is the bedtime delay between school nights and
weekends. Weekend delay is a factor in school performance
as well. Students that have greater than a two-hour
difference between school night and weekend performance
typically have worse grades than students who have a 1-hour
delay or less.

The shift in the sleep cycle can throw the circadian rhythm
off and effect neurochemicals that control attention and
learning. Also, as discussed above, poor sleep on the
weekends will impede consolidation of what was learned
during the week.

Improve Mood

The interaction between sleep and brain chemistry applies
for mood as well. There are complex systems of
neruochemicals and hormones that regulate our mood. This
has been a hot topic of research science for decades. We
have made significant progress on understanding the system
but are still really only scratching the surface.

Sleep and the circadian rhythm impact have a huge effect on
this system and our mood. In some cases, lack of sleep can
simply lead to irritability and lack of patience. In other
cases it can contribute to more serious mood disorders,
like depression.

Every parent knows that when their kids don't get enough
sleep they are cranky. Sometimes when they get too tired,
they get down right nasty and unreasonable. We have all
dealt with this. Well, there is a lot of neurochemistry
going on behind the scenes in these cases. Lack of sleep
disrupts brain serotonin levels, which play a major role in
sleep and mood.

How much sleep is enough?

Total sleep is important and we, as parents, should ensure
that our kids get to bed early enough to get sufficient
sleep. The amount of time needed is variable from age to
age and child to child but most parents have a feel for
what their kids need. Typically, school age kids need more
than 8 hours of sleep to perform optimally. Most kids need
9-10 hours per night.

Again, studies show that kids with greater differences
between their school night bed time and weekend bedtime
have more daytime sleepiness, greater depressive moods and
more sleep cycle problems.

Befriend the sandman and do what's necessary to get our
kids in bed on time. Their brains will thank us for it.

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