Time for bed: associations with cognitive performance in 7-year-old children: a longitudinal population-based study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Little is known about the links between the time that young children go to bed and their cognitive development. In this paper we seek to examine whether bedtimes in early childhood are related to cognitive test scores in 7-year-olds.

Methods

We examined data on bedtimes and cognitive test (z-scores) for reading, maths and spatial abilities for 11 178 7-year-old children from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.

Results

At age 7, not having a regular bedtime was related to lower cognitive test scores in girls: reading (β: -0.22), maths (β: -0.26) and spatial (β: -0.15), but not for boys. Non-regular bedtimes at age 3 were independently associated, in girls and boys, with lower reading (β: -0.10, -0.20), maths (β: -0.16, -0.11) and spatial (β: -0.13, -0.16) scores

SUBMITTER: Kelly Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3812865 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature