We live in crazy, busy times and no one seems more affected than today’s kids. Between band practice, sports commitments, club and team meetings, keeping up with social media, oh yea, and homework – your kids might be thinking they face the same predicament as the poet Robert Frost … they have promises to keep, and miles to go before they sleep. However, recent scientific studies on how sleep affects learning and the brain may have you, and your kids, reprioritizing the time allotted to a good night’s sleep.If you want your kids to do well in school, here are some tips:
We all know that being sleep deprived can make us tired and irritable but the negative effects are more serious than being snappy and petulant – missing critical hours of shut-eye can shrink the temporal lobe of the brain (the region critical to memory), produce higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, decrease overall IQ and impair the brain’s hippocampus, the region responsible for spatial memory. Mark Mahowald of the Minnesota Medical School reports that sleep deprivation can be equally as impairing as having legally intoxicating blood alcohol levels.
Many authorities agree that sleep enhances brain connections and students who get a good night’s sleep before an exam will benefit much more than pulling an all-nighter. Sleep is essential for life. Studies show that people who routinely get less than six hours of sleep a night have a shorter life expectancy.
While we while away the hours in our dreams, the body is busy dividing cells, synthesizing tissues, releasing growth hormones, and building learning and memory functions in the brain. Of all the body parts that require sleep, it appears the brain requires sleep more than any other part of the body.
So take my advice and have your kids sleep tight, and as my mother always told me, “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
Sweet Dreams!
