The day before a test, teachers always bid their students goodbye with the reminder to get a good night of sleep for the next day’s assessment, and this advice is for good reason. A lack of sleep has been shown to affect cognitive functioning, which can lead to students having a harder time remembering information, concentrating, and performing at their peak academic aptitude.
For those with learning disabilities, a lack of sleep may make their difficulties even more pronounced, emphasizing the importance of a good night’s sleep.
How Can Learning Disabilities Influence Sleep?
Those with learning disabilities may have a harder time falling and staying asleep—the prevalence of sleep problems in children with learning disabilities can range from 24% to 86%, while the ranges in adults with learning disabilities span from 8.5% to 34.1%.
For example, those with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more susceptible to many types of sleep disorders, including restless legs syndrome, breathing disorders, and narcolepsy. These disorders not only keep them from falling asleep, but they can also cause daytime drowsiness, which can then make it harder for them to concentrate in school.
Yet another learning disability associated with sleeping difficulties is dyslexia, which is correlated to a harder time falling asleep and a greater risk of breathing problems. This can include sleep apnea, a sleep disorder characterized by episodes of stopped breathing that then lead to multiple nighttime awakenings. Those with dyslexia have been shown to have unusually long periods of slow-wave sleep and an increased number of sleep spindles, which are both connected to language learning and may provide a link between sleep problems and learning difficulties.
Autism spectrum disorder can be found in up to 39% of adults with moderate to profound learning disabilities, and research has found that those with Autism and learning disabilities take longer to fall asleep, wake more often during the night, and take longer to fall back asleep.
Furthermore, having a learning disability can affect a child’s mental health due to the challenges they face in the classroom and the toll on their self-perception that can occur. As it stands, poor mental health is also associated with greater problems with sleep.
Overall, the primary types of sleep problems in those with learning disabilities include behavioral sleep problems and problems resulting from sleep-disordered breathing—these problems can have consequences that include sleeping for less time, waking early, finding it harder to fall and stay asleep, feeling anxious about bedtime, and feeling sleepy during the day.
Strategies for Supporting the Sleep of Students with Learning Disabilities
If your child has a learning disability, they may have a harder time sleeping at night despite needing the brain-boosting benefits of a full night of sleep to help counteract the challenges they face with their learning disability.
The following strategies can help those with learning disabilities get more good quality sleep each night and crush their school day:
Set A Bedtime, And Stick to It
When it comes to the sleep needs of children, the most important is ensuring that they get enough sleep each night, and the first step towards making this happen is setting a bedtime with their sleep needs and https://pillow.app/article/late-nights-and-early-mornings-the-impact-of-school-start-times-on-teen-sleep in mind. By setting a bedtime, you ensure that your child has the ability to get enough sleep each night.
Setting a bedtime is the easy part, though; the challenge lies in adhering to it even when there are tests to study for, projects to cram in, or late-night hobbies and activities. It’s not just parents who should know the importance of sticking to bedtime, either; they must help their children understand the benefits as well so that they put up less of a fight.
It may seem easier to give in when your child wants to stay up late, but persevering is the only way to make bedtime easier for everyone and cement it as a standard part of the nighttime routine.
Set A Screen Bedtime, As Well
Your child’s screen bedtime—the time of night when your child says goodnight to all screens—should come at least an hour before their own bedtime. Electronics have been shown to suppress melatonin production due to the blue light that they give off, which can then make it harder for your child to fall asleep and may make their sleep more restless.
To preserve their sleep, be sure to set a strict time when the electronics need to go away. To make this easier, have screen-free and relaxing activities available as suggestions to fill this time. Not only will the lack of screens help them prepare for bed, but by incorporating relaxing activities, they can take their mind off any of the stressors of the day.
Take Away Bedtime Anxieties
When you struggle to fall asleep, bedtime can become a source of anxiety, knowing the challenges that are to come. Parents can help their children feel more relaxed around bedtime by emphasizing that it’s not their fault if they struggle to fall asleep and helping them learn strategies for what to do if they find themselves lying awake.
Often, the anxiety of bedtime can exacerbate sleep issues, so by mitigating these stressors, children have the opportunity to fall asleep more easily.
Check For Signs of a Sleep Disorder
Sometimes, the challenges that a child has with sleep have causes that extend beyond a learning disability—it may be because of a sleep disorder. While some sleep disorders, such as insomnia, can often be managed through sleep hygiene habits, others, such as sleep apnea, may require medical treatment in order to see improvements in your child’s sleep.
If you’re concerned that your child’s sleep issues are more than just a poor night of sleep here or there, check in with their pediatrician with your concerns.
Use Sleep to Improve School Performance
Those with learning disabilities already have challenges to face in their school performance—they don’t need the negative implications of sleep deprivation on top of it. However, those with learning disabilities are at a higher risk of sleep problems, including problems falling and staying asleep and a greater likelihood of poor-quality sleep.
By creating regularity in your student’s sleep routines, removing the stress of sleeplessness, and visiting a doctor when all else fails, you can help your child sleep better, placing their brain in the optimal position to work through their learning disability.
