路透社：幼儿睡眠不足和认知与几年后的品性问题息息相关。
通过一些家长和老师所透露，七岁孩童面对行为上的问题是因为在幼儿园时期睡眠不足所造成的。
“小孩如没有得到充足的睡眠将会在专注力，情绪，推理，解决问题和品性方面面对难题”：路透社，麻省总医院儿科主任指出。
执行功能主要是大脑的能力对处理传入的讯息及对相关讯息作出回应，路透社指出: “ 这就像是你的大脑作为空中交通管制一样。空中交通管理必须知道怎么处理众多资料和怎么处理资料。
Taveras和同事分析了1,046个小孩的从出生就开始记录的实验数据。该实验的一部分，研究家详细的咨询了小孩在六个月，三岁，和七岁时的睡眠时间。妈妈们每一年也填写了小孩的健康问卷。
妈妈们和老师们使用问卷来评估每一位七岁小孩的执行控制操作和品性。
相比其它获得充足睡眠的小孩子来说，睡眠时间少于十小时的三至四岁小孩取得了较低的分数。同样的结果，发生五至七岁睡眠不足9小时的小孩身上。
六个月和两岁时的睡眠时间与七岁时息息相关，根据学术儿科学报到。
Taveras说坚持遵守日常时间表和设定适当的睡眠时间，对睡眠品质非常重要。
如果不想让你的孩子在周末时午夜才睡，那你必须让你的孩子在八点半前入睡的习惯。
Dr. Dean Beebe告诉我们：“这项研究也提到如果睡眠问题在小孩的幼儿时期就存在着，那将来他们也会面对行为及认知上的问题。”
Cincinatti儿童医院医学中心的儿科神经心理学家Beebe也说：“此外，其他与不同年龄层的孩子所进行的研究都与该研究显示着相同的结果。”
他也补充说明这项研究的强项在于让家长们评估孩子们的睡眠及让家长和老师们评估孩子们在行为上的表现。
Beebe提出三个建议要分享给家长们。第一，向National Sleep Foundation 或American Academy of Sleep Medicine了解及查看他们建议给一般孩子们的的睡眠量。
第二，要多留意你的孩子因为有些小孩需要更多的睡眠量，而有些小孩需要较少的睡眠量。第三，根据小孩的需求，建立一个日常规划表。
Beebe也说：“越是混乱或难以预测的睡眠时间表会使小孩有着更多的睡眠问题。”
Beebe补充说明：“一些轻松的活动如阅读睡前故事可作为睡前例行活动。”Beebe也说到：“虽然这是老式的方法，但它确实能让孩子们平复心情，也能让孩子们预测到睡觉的时间。”
（文章摘自幼儿教育理事会）
原稿：
Lack of sleep linked to behavioural problems in kids
REUTERS: Getting to lack of sleep in early childhood is linked to cognitive and behavioral problems years later, a U.S. study suggests.
Parents and teachers reported more problems in 7-year-olds who didn’t get enough sleep during their toddler and preschool years, compared to peers who got an age-appropriate amount of sleep during those early years.
“Children who aren’t getting the recommended amount of sleep have more difficulties with attention, with emotional control, with reasoning, with problem-solving, and also have behavioral problems,” lead author Dr. Elsie Taveras told Reuters Health.
“What we found was that insufficient sleep in children was associated with poorer executive function and behavior,” said Taveras, who is chief of general pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston.
Executive function is basically the brain’s ability to process incoming information and respond to that information, Taveras said. “It’s almost like your brain’s functioning (as) air traffic control. Air traffic control has to know how to take in a bunch of information and how to process it.”
Taveras and her colleagues analyzed data on 1,046 children from a study that followed them from before birth. As part of the study, researchers had asked mothers how long the kids slept at age 6 months, 3 years and 7 years. The mothers also filled out health questionnaires every year.
Insufficient sleep was defined as less than 12 hours during infancy, less than 11 hours for 3- and 4-year-olds and less than 10 hours for 5- to 7-year-old kids.
Mothers and teachers were asked to evaluate each child's executive function and behavior using questionnaires when the kids were 7 years old.
Children who slept less than 10 hours per day at ages 3 to 4 years had lower scores from both mothers and teachers compared to kids who usually slept longer. The results were similar for 5- to 7-year-olds who got less than 9 hours of sleep each night.
Sleep duration between 6 months and 2 years old was not linked to scores at age 7, according to the report in Academic Pediatrics.
Taveras said that being consistent with schedules and routines and setting age-appropriate bedtimes are important for good sleep.
“Don’t have your child go to sleep at midnight on the weekends and then expect that you’re going to be able to get them to bed and asleep by 8:30 on weekdays,” she said.
Taveras also tells parents to get all the screens out of the kids’ bedrooms including small devices that have push notifications or are beeping all night.
“(The study) adds to a building literature that is suggesting at least that having sleep problems early in life are predictive of behavioral and, in other populations, cognitive problems later,” Dr. Dean Beebe told Reuters Health.
“And it is overall consistent with what we've seen in other studies in different age ranges,” said Beebe, a pediatric neuropsychologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center who wasn't involved in the study.
“Having a parent do the sleep rating and then having both the parent and also a teacher do the behavior ratings actually is a really big strength of the study,” he added.
Beebe said he has three pieces of advice for parents. First, is to take a look and see what is the generally recommended amount of sleep for their kids by checking with the National Sleep Foundation or the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
"Number two is to pay attention to your child because some kids need more (sleep) and some kids need less,” he said. The third thing is to establish a daily schedule that is sensitive to the child's needs, and also includes routines, Beebe said.
"The more chaotic and the less predictable that sleep schedule, the more difficulty the kids tend to have with sleep," he said.
The bedtime routine should involve a winding down period with relaxing activities such as reading a bedtime story, Beebe added. “It seems old fashioned but it's very calming, it's very connecting. It can be very soothing, and it's very predictable,” he said.
(Article taken from www.reuters.com)
