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.
Just move the bedtime early. How simple is that!
A healthy child needs a healthy brain. A healthy brain needs healthy sleep. Emotional health, mental health (Blog Posts 99, 100 and 108), and cognition are strengthened with healthy sleep. But what exactly is cognition?
Cognition is the mental actions or processes that underlie all forms of knowing and awareness such as:
In 1925, The co-inventor of the IQ (Intelligence Quotient) test, discovered that children with IQs over 140 (the genius level) had longer sleep durations (based on parent’s reports) than those with lower IQs, for every age.
A 2018 paper, for children 5-13 years, titled ‘Cognition and objectively measured sleep duration in children’, concluded: “A significant effect was found between sleep duration and cognition, suggesting that longer sleep durations were associated with better cognitive function [based on objective measurements of sleep duration].”
A 2021 review paper titled ‘Sleep and human cognitive development’ documented “an interrelation between brain development, sleep, and cognition” and highlighted the important role of sleep spindles and REM sleep (Blog Post 112).
A 2022 paper, titled ‘Association between sleep duration and Intelligence Quotient in 6-year-old children concluded: “The results of this study support an association between longer sleep duration and increased IQ scores.”
Remember, the brain is the only organ in the body that has sleep as a requirement. Smart children have long sleep. Long sleep comes from an early bedtime (Blog Posts 7, 74, and 109). Even just a few minutes of extra sleep makes a big difference (Blog Post 6)!
