Regular Bedtime at Early Childhood Crucial for Brain Development

Putting children to sleep at a regular bedtime during early childhood boosts brain development, a new study claims.

Usually parents encourage their little ones to follow the routine, considering it a disciplinary habit. However, the new study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health found that a regular bedtime at early childhood had a greater role in a child's life, determining their skills at math, reading and spatial awareness at age seven.

For the study, researchers selected 11,000 children, aged seven. All the children were part of the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), born between 2000 and 2002.

Researchers collected information about the children and their daily routines, at different stages of growth, particularly at ages three, five and seven. A small number of the children went to bed at different times at age 3 (one in five), while most of them went to bed at a regular bedtime by age seven (between 7.30 and 8.30 p.m.).

At age seven, all the children gave tests on reading, math and spatial awareness. Researchers found that children who had an irregular bedtime at three years performed the worse on all the three tests. However, researchers couldn't determine if irregular bedtime at age five leaving a significant impact on children's brain power.

Another remarkable finding was the association between economic background of a child and bed timing. Children coming from socially disadvantaged backgrounds were found to be more likely not to have a regular bedtime or retire to bed late- mostly after 9 at night.

Irregular bed timings can lead to sleep deprivation, thus affecting the brain's development, researchers explained.

"Sleep is the price we pay for plasticity on the prior day and the investment needed to allow learning fresh the next day," the authors, wrote. "Early child development has profound influences on health and wellbeing across the life course. Therefore, reduced or disrupted sleep, especially if it occurs at key times in development, could have important impacts on health throughout life."

According to the National Sleep Foundation, toddlers should get around 12 to 14 hours sleep per day. Previous studies have shown that quality sleep improves children's language skills and poor sleep could lead to heart diseases, academic problems and behavioral malfunctioning.