Days full of adventures may be the best part of summer. Whether you’re basking in the sun or hiding from the weather indoors, there is so much fun to be had. Some of us get to spend extra time with our children, maybe even take them on outings to the zoo or park.

In all the hustle and bustle, it’s easy to push bedtime back by just one hour today and maybe 45 minutes tomorrow.

While all the time spent exploring, learning, and enjoying each other’s’ company is a wonderful part of summer, sticking to a sleep schedule is also important. Our children’s bodies and brains thrive on adequate sleep. High-quality sleep habits are as essential a need as food or water.

Let’s dive into the benefits of children getting consistent, quality sleep.

1. Better Brain Function

Many of us know that getting enough sleep is essential for children to be able to learn in the classroom. Research has shown that children not getting enough high-quality sleep translates into trouble concentrating and negatively impacts their ability to learn.(1) These negative effects are especially stark in younger children because their prefrontal cortex is still developing.

Summer is not a time that our children stop learning. They can learn about butterflies and other types of insects as they play out in the garden. They can practice letter writing in a sandbox. Rainbows teach about colors and lights, while baseball teaches about physics.

Learning can happen in so many moments during school breaks. Maintaining an age-appropriate bedtime and, if necessary, nap schedule will prepare your child’s brain to absorb every new thing.

2. Increased Emotional Regulation and More Positive Behavior

We’ve likely all seen a toddler having a meltdown mid-afternoon and thought, “Poor baby, they probably need a nap.”

Poor sleep triggering intense, negative emotions happens in the early years of life and throughout childhood. Even as adults, many of us experience a lack of control of our emotions after a certain number of hours awake. Maybe you’ve found yourself in tears because your favorite food isn’t in the fridge after you’ve spent the last few nights awake with the baby.

Children experience the same thing, just much sooner. Getting enough hours of sleep at night helps a child be in control of their emotions and behavior.(2) Good sleep helps them to stop and think before making decisions, so their behaviors may not be as impulsive.

Inattentive behaviors are also much more common when a child isn’t taking good naps during the day or isn’t getting enough sleep at night.(3) You may notice that your child doesn’t listen to instructions well or jumps from task to task after they’ve slept poorly or didn’t get to bed on time.

3. Greater Motor Skills

Your child focuses hard to get those tiny Lego blocks to click together. Or their brows furrow in concentration as they work on their typing skills at the computer. Their little fingers work so hard to move in just the right way to execute a task.

Research has shown greater fine motor skills in children that got adequate day and night sleep over those who didn’t.(4) Children as young as six years old were able to reap these benefits from sufficient sleep.

You may also see increases in their gross motor skills with adequate sleep. They may be able to go across the monkey bars faster or climb higher on the jungle gym. Their balance will also be better as they tetter across the balance beam or tiptoe from one garden rock to the next.

Play is a child’s work, and they need their motor skills to play and learn. Keeping those skills sharp with adequate sleep is essential.

4. Enhanced Memory

Not only are children able to learn better if they've gotten adequate sleep, but they are also able to remember those lessons better.

Memory consolidation happens while we sleep. Young children have smaller stores for short-term memories than adults do. Think of it like them having a child’s size glass and you having an adult-sized one that you both fill from the same faucet. The child will need to empty theirs much sooner.

Daytime sleep allows them to empty their cup, or short-term memory, into long-term memory. Having shorter intervals between bouts of sleep allows them to retain more information in the long term. One study showed this as preschoolers who consistently took a midday nap were better able to retain information that they learned in the morning.(5)

The results emphasized the importance of daytime sleep in this group. Even an adequate number of hours of nighttime sleep did not reap the same memory benefits as a daytime nap. If your child doesn’t want to take a nap, try having them rest or have quiet time in the middle of the day. You may see some of the same benefits.

Inadequate Sleep Aggravates Mental Illness

All of these benefits of sleep are great. However, it’s good to recognize the flip side as well: not getting enough sleep leads to negative outcomes.

Pre-existing mental illness can be aggravated by a lack of quality sleep.(6) Emotional disorders and behavioral disorders are especially affected. Poor quality, and insufficient sleep can also be a risk factor for developing new mental illnesses.

Protecting bedtime and naptime is essential to caring for our children. They are equipped to thrive with adequate sleep.

So, stick to the nightly routine even when they protest and know that they will be rested and prepared to go again the next day. If the schedule gets off one night, get right back on it the next day. Don’t let a late bedtime become a summer habit. This way your child will be happy, healthy, and ready to enjoy every day.

Enjoy the summer break!

Want to learn more specifically about infant sleep? Check out my recent Genius Little Minds podcast episode that answers all your infant sleep questions!

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References

Dewald, J. F., Meijer, A. M., Oort, F. J., Kerkhof, G. A., & Bögels, S. M. (2010). The influence of sleep quality, sleep duration and sleepiness on school performance in children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review. Sleep medicine reviews, 14(3), 179-189.
Beebe, D. W. (2011). Cognitive, behavioral, and functional consequences of inadequate sleep in children and adolescents. Pediatric Clinics, 58(3), 649-665.
Fallone, G., Acebo, C., Arnedt, J. T., Seifer, R., & Carskadon, M. A. (2001). Effects of Acute Sleep Restriction on Behavior, Sustained Attention, and Response Inhibition in Children. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 93(1), 213–229. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.2001.93.1.213
Yan, J. H. (2017). Children benefit differently from night-and day-time sleep in motor learning. Human movement science, 54, 297-307.
Kurdziel, L., Duclos, K., & Spencer, R. M. (2013). Sleep spindles in midday naps enhance learning in preschool children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(43), 17267-17272.
Dahl, R. E., & Harvey, A. G. (2007). Sleep in children and adolescents with behavioral and emotional disorders. Sleep medicine clinics, 2(3), 501-511.