Sleep, Science, and Smarter Kids: How Sleep Boosts Learning

It’s only August, and here in the Pacific Northwest, summer just arrived. But fall is already looming: my daughter’s back-to-school open house is weeks away. Friends around the country are prepping for the first day in the next couple of weeks. So even though I’d like to dip my toes in a pool with a good book and ignore the siren song of Target’s back-to-school sale circular, I can’t. The return of reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic is upon us. (And for the record, I’m looking forward to getting back to a school year routine. But I’d like a little tiny bit more summer first, please.)

Back-to-school season is second only to Christmas in parental spending—on average, families shell out around $600 on new clothes, shoes, backpacks, binders, calculators, and all the other gear that budding scholars need. But all too often, they forget the one learning aid that’s widely available, free, and doesn’t require a USB cable or batteries. I’m talking about sleep: new studies are highlighting the critical link between sleep and learning, and how sleep deprivation sets kids up for inattentiveness and learning troubles, even ADHD symptoms. Did you know kids can learn in their sleep, starting at birth? (Now that’s a lesson in multitasking!)

My article Sleep, Science, and Smarter Kids: How Sleep Boosts Learning, in this month’s New Jersey Family Magazine, covers one of the best ways to help kids bring home As: start with more ZZZZs. [Read the article here.]