Sleeping for better learning
Sleeping for better learning
School kids need a lot of sleep. Probably more than you think. Sleep is the time when their bodies grow, their cells repair and when illness is fought. Children who sleep well are better learners and are better behaved. Recent reseach shows that they are less likely to be overweight and that they are less affected by coughs and colds. Other research shows that sleep clears their memory of useless facts, stores important ones and frees up the memory for new information. That’s the key to learning and it happens when they’re asleep!
There is a hormone called melatonin produced in the pineal gland in our brain that makes us sleepy and then helps us fall to sleep. Research shows that this hormone is stimulated by things like the onset of night and the reduction of visual stimuli. In the modern age we suppress this hormone with brightly lit homes and large TV screens with bright flickering images. We’re tired but we’re not sleepy, so we stay up.
A school age child needs ten to twelve hours sleep. If they’re waking up at 7am to get ready for school they should be in bed asleep at 7pm to 9pm each night. So how do you get that to happen?
Firstly you have to schedule a specific bedtime and work backwards from there. From the moment kids arrive home from school there’s lots to do. As a suggestion, a parent might allow some playtime or TV time for when their child arrives home from school. Followed by homework, mealtime and lastly bathing. Then there needs to be some quiet time with dimmed lights and no TV or computer games. For younger children this could be reading time with a soft lamp in a darkened room with no other distractions for the 30 minutes prior to sleep. Over a period of about three weeks they will gradually train themselves to produce melatonin at this time and sleep should come easily.
You also need to avoid sugary, artificically coloured foods for a few hours before bedtime. Some preservatives have a stimulating effect on some children and you need to identify what food additives you’re feeding them if sleep doesn’t come easily.
Getting them into bed and sleeping is one thing, getting them to stay asleep is another. There are many things that can disturb a child’s sleep and they need to be addressed if you want a well rested child.
Sleep occurs in cycles of about 45 minutes. Each cycle takes the sleeper through 5 stages of sleep, from barely asleep down to deep sleep and then back up to R.E.M. or dream sleep. It’s during the deep sleep that the body produces Human Growth Hormone for growth and cell repair. Sleepers disturbed by breathing difficulties or discomfort will spend less time in the deep sleep stage and this is where long term fatigue may originate, and poorer study results can follow.
There are two main categories here. Comfort and allergens. A mattress and base combination should be selected to suit the weight of the child and consideration should be given to any allergies that the child may display. Allergies are often caused by dust mites which can live inside conventional mattresses in colonies that can number in the hundreds of thousands of insects. The dust mite faeces are a known allergen and a major cause of asthma and respiratory problems. There are many mattresses on the market that suppress or eliminate the dust mite problem and these are certainly worth a look. Hypo-allergenic pillows, regularly washed bed linen and a dust-free bedroom complete the picture for a sound allergy reduction strategy and a great night’s sleep.
In summary:
Sleep is critical to good health, good behaviour and better learning
Sleep is brought on by dimmed lights and a reduction in stimulation
Sleep time can be trained into a person with a proper routine
Sleep is enhanced by comfortable and allergy managed bedding.
Tags: newsletter, sleep, sleeping
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by bill edwards on -
Thankyou, this was a question in hour house.
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Permalink Reply by Cate Cleggett on
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I have an extremely fit, active 10 year old who just cannot get to sleep at night. This has been going on now for 6 weeks.We have tried everything from no electonic stimulus at all for a week, natropathic remedies, relaxing tapes and talking with him to see if anything is bothering him, but still no luck. He does start stressing by about 10.30, so I have even let him read for 15 minutes at that time to see if that will relax him. (He is reading 39 clues, not anything scary). It is definitely affecting him as in: he is terribly grumpy by about 5pm, he suffers from the night terrors about 1 hour after getting to sleep - sleep walking and screaming the place down. This is also affecting the whole family. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Permalink Reply by Graeme C Anderson on
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Your son is going to bed far too late, he should be in bed at about 8.00pm. When he arrives home from school, give him a glass of milk and a wholesome sandwich, and make sure he is out in the fresh air playing a ball game or similar. His dinner should consist of meat/fish and vegetables, and a desert of fresh fruit. By the time he reaches his bed he should feel satisfied and relaxed. Are you checking on the TV programs he is watching? This often can be a source of worry to him depending on what he is viewing.
Natropathic remedies will never work, as it is a form of taking your money from you.Go back to the basics, I was born in 1942, and most children in those days didn't have the problems that are in our society today.
Graeme Anderson.
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Permalink Reply by Katrina Smith on -
Hi Cate. You may find that your boy has a more complex problem than can be fixed with diet and routines. A boy at my daughter's school had chronic sleep difficulty and was prescribed oral melatonin to help him sleep. It worked. I would recommend seeing a doctor (if you haven't already) and see about getting a referral to a sleep therapist who can properly diagnose him and begin treatment. I know of another child who was very sensitive to a preservative commonly found in sausages. Her mother used a food diary to eliminate and gradually introduce foods to pin-point the offending chemical and had very good results. She also found that her daughter was sensitive to synthetic red food colours causing hyper-activity and sleep difficulty.
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Permalink Reply by Cate Cleggett on
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Thanks Katrina. Interesting you should talk about the preservatives in the sausages. We live in the country - 450 km away from any sleep therapists, but we usually freeze our own meat - no preservatives. But just recently I have been making some sausage/vege rolls to try to introduce more vegetables into their diets and have been using the coles sausage meat. I will definitely cut them out and see if there is any difference, and will make an appointment with his GP (a 3 to 6 week wait for non-urgent appointments out here). (By the way, the sausage rolls have been really successful and the boys have enjoyed experimenting with different veges. The last batch had potatoes, carrots, sweet potato, zuchinni and spinach, and they loved them).
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Permalink Reply by Christine Boyle on
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I have the same problem with my 8 year old son. He is fit and active but has always had trouble going to sleep. He goes to bed between 8 and 8.30 and reads for 15 minutes. He is usually still awake when we go to bed at 10.30. We then have to wake him up for school at 7.30am and he's grumpy. We have tried everything, earlier bed times, later bed times, waking him up early but nothing works. As annoying as it is I think some kids just don't need as much sleep as others. Sometimes kids who are intelligent have an overactive mind, which I think applies to my son. Your son might be scared of going to sleep because of the nightmares. It might help for you to talk to your Doctor about it.
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Permalink Reply by Sam on -
It is proven that gifted children generally need less sleep than others. Perhaps you should have your son tested. I have a gifted child, however he would still be asleep by 8pm usually at that age.
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Permalink Reply by Katrina Smith on
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With all due respect Sam, I think you'll find that's an old wife's tale. Gifted children have exactly the same sleeping patterns as other humans. They produce the same amount of HGH and have the same rate of cell repair as other children of the same age. They may cope with tiredness better than others and perform better in tests than others who are also tired but, the child will be doing poorer than they would normally do if they don't get adequate sleep.
Gifted children are often more anxious and that can be the reason for their sleep difficulties.
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Permalink Reply by gloria carney on
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I would sugest that you take your son to see a kinesiologist. There are some brilliant kinesiologists out there who are making positive changes to childrens lives. There is no harm in trying
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Permalink Reply by Elke Kaiser on
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I wished that bed time was the problem!
My seven year old, who has never been a long sleeper, goes out like a light and sleeps soundly through the night between 8 and 9.00 pm, thanks to years of persistent work and recommended bed time routines. HOwever, he awakes anytime between 5 and 6 am and cannot or will not go back to sleep, no matter what I try. Lately he has even got up at 2 am a couple of times - and stayed awake all day and was mostly ok, albeit a bit irritable in the afternoon.
The problem is that I usually don't even know when he is up, since I am a sound sleeper, and he has got clever about keeping quiet, since he knows I will send him back to bed if I find him up at an early hour. That leaves him consistently with a 8 to 9 hour sleep per night, instead of the recommended 10 to 12!
We do get the occasional 10 hour sleep once in a blue moon, but that is only after several late nights and parties three days in a row...etc He is extremely fit and active, plays sport three times a week and his behaviour is generally fine. SO what shall I do to make him sleep more? or should I just let him be?
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Permalink Reply by Graeme C Anderson on
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Your son may be having all the sleep he requires, if he is being good and not waking other family members up, I would not worry too much. If he is encouraged to read a book when he wakes up, this may get him back to sleep for another hour or two. It sounds as if he is one of these little people who is well fed with a balanced diet,and does not require a 12 hour sleep each night.
Graeme Anderson.
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Permalink Reply by Stephen britten on
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HELLO TO ALL PARENTS I PERSONALLY BELIEVE THAT CHILDREN NEED LESS TV AND MORE INTER ACTIVE TIME WITH YOU! EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE EXTREMELY TIED AT THE END OF THE DAY A GOOD 30 MINS WITH FOCUSING ON THEM WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE SO MUCH EASIER.ONCE YOU MAKE ROUTINE OF THIS YOU WILL SEE RESULTS IN YOUR FAMILIES LIFESTYLE CHANGE FOR THE BETTER DONT GIVE IN TO THERE DEMANDS OF WATCHING TV TO LONG IF YOU LIKE MANY OTHER PARENTS ARE HAVING TO WAKE UP EARLY FOR WORK & THAT EFFECT YOUR CHILDS SLEEP PATTERNS THEY WILL JUST NEED TO GO TO BED EARLIER AS ITS TRUE THEY NEED MORE SLEEP THEN US,TO BE FULLY ALERT FOR THERER NEXT SCHOOL DAY.DIET AT NIGHTS ANY SUGAR BASED PRODUCTS TO BE KEPT AT REASONABLE LEVEL AS THEY WILL BE TO HYPED UP AND NOT BE ABLE TO GO TO SLEEP STRAIGHT AWAY.ENJOY YOUR PARENTING AS THEY ARE ONLY YOUNG FOR A SHORT TIME.
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