Kids with steady bedtimes show better behaviour: Study

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Getting you kids to sleep at a decent hour is sometimes a troublesome affair.

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And trying for a steady time to crawl into bed requires extra effort.

But the work put in by parents to ensure a consistent bedtime appears to help children better control their emotions and behaviours when under stress or among other kids, according to a study by researchers at Pennsylvania State University.

The study, published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, analyzed sleep and behaviour data from 143 six-year-old children in the Penn State Intervention Nurses Start Infants Growing on Healthy Trajectories (INSIGHT) study.

Researchers Adwoa Dadzie, a doctoral student in biobehavioural health, and Orfeu Buxton, Dadzie’s doctoral adviser, led a study into the impacts of consistent bedtimes on the INSIGHT children, whose mothers received training in responsive parenting, beginning at the time of birth.

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The study found responsive parenting, which requires the mother to respond to a child’s emotional and physical needs in a warm, timely and consistent manner, can help promote healthy sleep.

“Children who had consistent bedtimes were generally able to regulate their behaviour and emotions,” Dadzie told Penn State’s website. “On the other hand, children whose bedtimes and sleep times were all over the place showed more impulsivity and less control.”

The children who participated in the study wore wrist monitors for a week to track the time they fell asleep, the amount of sleep they got and the hour they woke up.

Researchers also tested the kids’ frustration levels by telling them to choose a toy that they wanted to play with. It was then placed in a clear box and locked, and the child was given a set of keys, none of which unlocked the box.

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Researchers noticed that children who had better sleep habits typically used self-talk and tried every key to open the box, while others who had more varying sleep times exhibited less control, including throwing the keys away without even attempting to unlock it.

The study also asked children to decorate a picture frame with their parents. If the kids shared and cooperated with their parents, they were identified as prosocial. If they wrecked craft supplies or mouthed off at their family, they were labelled antisocial.

The results showed that kids who went to bed at a consistent time — within 20 minutes each night — displayed more self-regulation and showed better restraint than other children whose bedtimes varied by up to two hours.

“It’s amazing,” said Buxton. “Parenting matters. When parents establish clear structures and respond to their child’s needs appropriately, children have better outcomes in weight regulation and behaviour — even years later.”

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