Late nights and lax bedtime routines can blunt young children's minds, research suggests.
The findings on sleep patterns and brain power come from a UK study of more than 11,000 seven-year-olds.
Youngsters who had no regular bedtime or who went to bed later than 21:00 had lower scores for reading and maths.
Lack of sleep may disrupt natural body rhythms and impair how well the brain learns new information say the study authors.
They gathered data on the children at the ages of three, five
and then seven to find out how well they were doing with their learning
and whether this might be related to their sleeping habits.
By the age of seven, more than half the children had a regular bedtime of between 19:30 and 20:30.
Overall, children who had never had regular bedtimes tended
to fare worse than their peers in terms of test scores for reading,
maths and spatial awareness.
The impact was more obvious throughout early childhood in girls than in boys and appeared to be cumulative.
The researchers, led by Prof Amanda Sacker from University
College London, said it was possible that inconsistent bedtimes were a
reflection of chaotic family settings and it was this, rather than
disrupted sleep, that had an impact on cognitive performance in
children.
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