Want a Well Behaved, Smart Child? Get them on a Regular Bedtime Routine

Parents across the world know that familiar face: a cranky child who's scratchy their eyes and appear annoyed with everything around them. That facial is none other than a clear sign it's time for bed.

A new study, which looked at 10,000 children when they were three, five and seven years old,  done by researchers at University College London found that irregular bedtimes have negative effects on a child. Such effects included lower test scores, higher rates of hyperactivity, emotional difficulties, and social problems when it came to interacting with their peers.

"Not having fixed bedtimes, accompanied by a constant sense of flux, induces a state of body and mind akin to jet lag and this matters for healthy development and daily functioning," study author Yvonne Kelly, a professor at University College London Epidemiology & Public Health, said in a press release.

The researcher said there is a clear t link between bedtimes and behavior as irregular bedtimes affected children's behavior by disrupting circadian rhythms, leading to sleep deprivation that affects the developing brain.

"What we've shown is that these effects build up incrementally over childhood, so that children who always had irregular bedtimes were worse off than those children who did have a regular bedtime at one or two of the ages when they were surveyed.  But our findings suggest the effects are reversible," said Professor Kelly. "For example, children who change from not having to having regular bedtimes show improvements in their behavior." 

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that children aged three had the most irregular bed time. By the age of seven, more than half the children went to bed regularly between 7.30 and 8.30 pm. The researchers found that children who went to bed after 9 pm or had irregular bedtimes came from more socially disadvantaged backgrounds.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, preschoolers between 3 and 5 years old should get about 11 to 13 hours of sleep a night, while kids up to the age of 12 need around 10 to 11 hours.