The importance of sleep for learning and proper growth in teens and children cannot be underestimated. Nighttime dreaming literally promotes growth in the brain and body. When a young person does not get enough of this brain activity, the effects can be devastating. School children and teenagers are particularly vulnerable to REM deprivation for two reasons. REM refers to the activity of the brain when dreaming. If deprived of REM activity, a person could suffer serious mental illness.
For one thing, children and teenagers require 9 to 10 sleeping hours each night. This is in comparison to the recommended seven to eight hours required by fully grown adults. Younger people have to wake up very early to get ready for school, usually around 6:00 AM. To get enough shut-eye, they would have to be asleep by 9:00pm at the latest. For anyone who has kids (including teens) or remembers being a kid, this is almost out of the question.
The second reason that young people absolutely must get enough nocturnal rest has to do with brain functions. Their young minds are constantly at work, processing new information, absorbing the many complexities of this world, and forming thoughts and questions. Their brains cannot perform these functions without enough dream-time. They simply won’t learn as quickly or as deeply as they would with enough REM brain activity.
Studies have shown that a large majority of teens and children do not get enough deep rest. There are so many digital, online, cell-phone based distractions that rest must compete with. Parents are finding it harder than ever to convince kids the wonderful benefits (and downright necessity) of proper sleeping habits.
One study performed by leading doctors in the field of cognitive learning showed startling results. These researchers and doctors set up an experiment involving a combination of third graders and fifth graders. They were each given instructions of when they were to be asleep.
Some children were instructed to go to bed earlier and some were told to stay up later for three nights in a row. To ensure the children followed instructions, they wore a watch-like device when they went to bed. This gadget measures sleeping activity in the wearer.
The children who went to bed early, did so by half an hour or so. The group that stayed up later, did so by also by a half hour. Worried that a half hour on either side of the clock would not make a huge difference, the doctors assumed the study would not prove anything. They were very wrong, much to their delight.
After the final night of slightly less sleep-time for the second group, researchers studied the children at school. The research showed that the children who got a half hour less sleep-time for three nights in a row performed like a child two years younger. In those three nights, with a total of an hour and a half loss of shut-eye, the children lost two years in cognitive maturity and capabilities. Thus showing profoundly the importance of sleep for learning.
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