I’ve been called a lot of unflattering things since becoming a parent, but “Sleep Nazi” is not one of them.
Allow me to clarify: I am often accused of being a “Sleep Nazi,” only I don’t consider it unflattering at all. In fact, it’s a title I wear with unrelenting, in-your-face pride.
If you saw how my child acts when she doesn’t get a good’s night sleep, I guarantee you would dig deep to find a much more complimentary title for me.
I am a stickler when it comes to bedtime; namely because my child is an absolute wreck if she doesn’t log 11-12 hours of sleep.
And I’m not talking about nine hours at night and a two or three-hour afternoon nap. My daughter’s seven, and unless we are in the car for more than three hours at a stretch, she will fight the urge to shut her eyes with more ferocity than an angry mother bear.
My child needs 11-12 hours of uninterrupted sleep in order to function properly. If she doesn’t get it she is a meltdown waiting to happen.
Twelve hours of sleep may sound like a lot, especially if your elementary school-aged child seems to get by on just eight hours a night. However, according to a new study, you may want to reassess your child’s sleep schedule.
Researchers in Barcelona, Spain, just released findings that show primary school students need to have at least nine hours of sleep each night or “their capacity to learn will be impaired.”
The study was designed to examine the link between sleep and children’s intellectual development. The results: A lack of sleep damaged the core skills children need for learning.
After doing my I-told-you-so validation dance, I stumbled across some other interesting details from the study. One point that really stood out is that even those children participating in the research, who had 8 to 9 hours of sleep, were more likely to struggle in school compared with children who slept for 9 to 11 hours.
The “struggles” the researchers refer to in the study include disruption of “memory, learning and motivation” in addition to poor performance with grammar, spelling, and reading comprehension, all due to insufficient sleep or the lack of a regular bedtime routine.
Researchers concluded that the study should serve as a wake-up call to parents that their kids need more sleep.
How many hours of sleep do your kids’ log each night?
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