The faculty “theory into practice” book group recently read and discussed the book Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. In nine chapters, the authors explore -- and shatter -- several pieces of conventional wisdom having to do with parenting and child development. Because the topics explored are so critical to healthy maturation, and because the research the writers have synthesized is so compelling, I or others will periodically sketch out a number of their findings. I recommend the entire book to all of you, however, since Nurture Shock’s conclusions are so thought provoking on topics such as the impact of praise, sibling relationships, early childhood academic enrichment, teenage rebellion, childhood lying, talking with children about race, and the validity of early testing.
This week I wanted to address the authors’ assertions in the chapter entitled, “The Lost Hour,” having to do with sleep. While 90% of American parents think that their children get enough sleep, 60% of high school students report feelings of extreme sleepiness during the daytime. Bronson and Merryman report that “half of adolescents get less than seven hours of sleep on weeknights” and that “it is an overlooked fact that children -- from elementary school through high school -- get an hour less sleep each night than they did thirty years ago.” While the reasons for this range from over-scheduling and too much homework to constant use of technological devices and lax bedtimes, “this lost hour appears to have an exponential impact on children that it simply doesn’t have on adults.”
Bronson and Merryman report that, when combing the research, “the surprise is not merely that sleep matters -- but how much it matters, demonstrably, not just to academic performance and emotional stability, but to phenomena that we assumed to be entirely unrelated, such as the international obesity epidemic and the rise of ADHD… Sleep problems during formative years can cause permanent changes in a child’s brain structure… [and] it’s even possible that many of the hallmark characteristics of being a tweener and teen -- moodiness, depression, and even binge eating -- are actually just symptoms of chronic sleep deprivation.”
For instance, one study of fourth and sixth graders showed that “a slightly sleepy sixth grader will perform like a mere fourth grader” and that “a loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to the loss of two years of cognitive maturation and development.” Numerous studies “point to the large academic consequences of small sleep differences,” starting as early as pre-Kindergarten and peaking in high school. One researcher concluded that “sleep disorders can impair children’s IQ as much as lead exposure.”
Brain research has shown that “tired children can’t remember what they just learned” and that sleep loss “causes children to be inattentive in class” because it “debilitates the body’s ability to extract glucose from the bloodstream.” This particularly impacts those abilities known as “executive function” which has to do with planning, organization, and impulse control. Furthermore, adequate sleep is required for the brain to “shift what it learned that day to more efficient storage regions of the brain.” In fact, “the more you learned during the day, the more you need to sleep that night.”
This is just the tip of the sleep research that Bronson and Merryman synthesize and make accessible. Their discussion of the emotional and nutritional consequences of sleep loss is particularly fascinating.