If your teen happens to be taking important exams this year, you’re no doubt bracing yourself for a difficult few weeks.
You might not be able to do their revision for your them, but you can make suggestions to ensure that exam time runs smoothly.
Amongst the parenting mantra routinely trotted out, a good night’s sleep should be at the top of your list. And that goes for your little ones too.
A recent study has revealed that if children get an extra 90 minutes of sleep during the week, their marks will improve. That’s just 18-19 minutes more rest from Sunday to Thursday.
Dr Reut Gruber, a psychologist specialising in pediatric sleep, said: “They need to be able to use their cognition, to pay attention, to take in information and then remember it and integrate it into what they already know. They have to be able to focus and ignore distractions.”
Dr Gruber adds that sleeping is like saving your computer work on its hard drive.
She said: “If you haven’t saved the file, it’s gone and memory consolidation isn’t just affected by sleep, it’s dependent on it. Sleep is an essential component to help kids with self-regulation, mood and emotional responses, too.”
The study enlisted the help of teachers, parents and children in Montreal.
Dr Gruber’s team developed programs to teach children aged between seven and 11 years old about the importance of sleep.
Their slumber was monitored by bracelets that each child wore before, during and after the six week study.
A significant improvement was seen in their sleep alongside their school marks, which jumped on average from 77% to 80% for English and from 77% to 80% for maths.
De Gruber said: “While three percentage points may not seem like a lot, they are statistically significant.”
They certainly are, showing that just 20 minutes extra sleep each night can can make all the difference.
But it’s not just school work that will benefit. Better sleep also means better concentration, a healthy immune system and a greater ability to keep emotions in check too - just when it counts at exam time!
So how do we encourage our children to have a decent night’s sleep? Well a decent child’s bed is a good place to start, not to mention a comfortable mattress...
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