As children grow and learn, their health plays a role in their learning capacity. This is especially true when considering the role of sleep, as youth sleep patterns and the quality thereof affect how children learn and how much they can learn. Just as adults experience better memory consolidation and improved attention and focus because of sleep, so, too, can children. This article will explore some of the ways that sleep plays a role in youth learning capacity and why this matters.
We’ll discuss how sleep can enhance memory and even neuroplasticity while also allowing children to focus and pay attention more in school. Some of the other ways that sleep plays a role in improving youth learning capacity include emotional regulation, brain development, and problem-solving. Let’s explore the first example of how sleep enhances youth learning capacities: through the promotion of neuroplasticity and memory.
Promotes Neuroplasticity and Memory
The more that we sleep, the better our memory will be and the more we promote neuroplasticity. If you are unaware of neuroplasticity, this term refers to the brain’s ability to form new neural connections. It is through new neural connections that kids create new understandings, code memories, and even think critically about what they have discovered. Without neuroplasticity, people would struggle with learning, but fortunately, sleep promotes neuroplasticity and memory.
As shown in a study with children as young as newborns and as old as adolescents, sleep promoted memory consolidation. It also encouraged neuroplasticity, which increased the children’s ability to continue to learn, especially more complex or advanced ideas. In other words, the better quality sleep children receive, the better they prepare themselves for learning and lifelong brain health. They also enjoy better memory, which is essential to remember all that they have encountered. Yet, we must also explore how sleep can increase attention and focus, which is necessary for children when they are learning new skills or information.
Increases Attention and Focus
Have you ever experienced a night of poor rest and felt like you were struggling to pay attention? This is normal, and it also happens to kids. You may have even seen it with your own children if you are reading this to learn how to help their health! Studies have shown that poor sleep leads to an inability to focus and pay attention, creating opportunities for poor school performance and functioning (Source: Sleep Medicine Reviews). This could explain a lousy grade for some kids or even an inability to remember what they learned in the classroom.
It's clear that with better sleep, children have better focus and attention. The same can be said for adults, but it is even more critical for kids to have better sleep to support their development, as we will explore later. However, we should also touch upon how sleep can play a vital role in the learning capacity of children by allowing them to engage in proper emotional regulation so that they can be fully present in the activity they are participating in.
Enhances Emotional Regulation
It’s true that sleep plays a vital role in learning, but it can also help children and adolescents learn better emotional regulation, which therefore increases their capacity to learn and adapt. Without proper emotional regulation, kids or teens might be distracted, distraught, and suffer from poor relationships with others. Sleep is directly related to stress and your ability to manage stress, and the same goes for kids. Experiencing poor sleep can actually reduce the ability to emotionally regulate oneself, on top of the challenges of poor focus and attention.
Similar but distinct from emotional regulation, sleep also plays a role in children’s executive functioning, which can control behavior and help with impulse control. Poor sleep contributed to worse executive functioning, demonstrating how much sleep can disturb a child or teen’s ability to learn without distractions. With better sleep, children and teens enjoy better emotional regulation and executive functioning to help facilitate more focused learning.
Assists with Brain Development
Even though circadian rhythms will change throughout a child’s development as they grow into adults, sleep can help with brain development, which is critical to one’s ability to learn. Because sleep supports cognition, it also supports a child’s ability to think clearly, creatively, and on advanced subject matter. In fact, one study published in Sleep Medicine Reviews showed that sleep and brain development are connected either way. In other words, the better you sleep, the better your brain development, and vice versa.
This is important not only to kids but to teens, too. Adolescence is one of the most critical periods of development, especially in regard to cognition. Because sleep enhances brain development, getting adequate rest during one’s teen years can set someone up for proper brain development to improve their learning capabilities (Source: Child & Adolescent Health). That’s why getting good sleep is so important: not only can it make you feel more energized, but it will help you develop without delay!
Helps Develop Problem-Solving Skills
Finally, sleep plays a role in learning for kids and teens because it can help them develop strong problem-solving skills. This is important, especially for younger kids who may be exposed to today’s common sleep disturbers: screens. The more time young kids spend on screens and the less they sleep, the more likely they are to have poorer problem-solving skills. These findings were mainly found with young kids between the ages of two and five, but it shows an important conclusion: sleep is more important and indicative of how well we problem-solve later on in life.
If we want to encourage our children to have better problem-solving skills, we need to enable them to sleep. They should also avoid distractions that can keep them up, as spending time with tactile toys and enjoying plenty of naps is far more likely to produce proper problem-solving skills than playing on screens!
Encourage Your Child’s Learning and Development Through Proper Sleep
While you might not believe it, your child’s sleep is directly tied to their ability to learn. We explored how sleep enhances a child’s learning capacity by promoting memory consolidation and neuroplasticity, attention and focus, emotional regulation and executive functioning, and even brain development. We also showed how sleep can help with problem-solving. We hope this article enlightened you about the importance of sleep for youth today. To see more articles like this one, check out the Pillow website to read more.
