If you have not already done so, please read Blog Posts 1 through 5 that describe how sleep is important and beneficial. I will post specific information for parents and children based on my book, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.” Please do not be put off by my book’s length. This is a reference book. Read only the topic of interest to you.
“Prosocial behaviors, such as helping, sharing, comforting and cooperating , are voluntary behaviors aimed at benefiting others. In addition to enhancing social relationships, prosocial behaviors in early childhood are also known to predict long-term mental health status and academic achievement.”
“Cognitive empathy refers to the ability to understand others’ emotions and take perspectives, an important ability that gradually emerges and matures throughout early childhood.”
About 23,500 4-year-old kindergarten children were studied and 11.3% had abnormal prosocial behaviors.
Results showed that shorter night sleep duration was associated with more prosocial behavior problems and that this association was mediated by decreased cognitive empathy.
If you want your child to have more cognitive empathy and prosocial behaviors, put your child to bed earlier so that the night sleep duration will be longer.
How much earlier?
The difference in night sleep duration between 89% of children with normal prosocial behaviors and 11% of children with abnormal prosocial behaviors was 9.7 hours versus 9.6 hours.
Put your child to bed 6 minutes earlier!
Blog Post 137 gives many examples of how just a few minutes of extra sleep make a big difference. Here is one example:
• Delaying school start times caused 15-year-olds to sleep in later and five months later, they demonstrated improved mental health, better prosocial behavior, peer relationships, and attention level but the average increase in night sleep was only 2.4 minutes.
