Most concerning is that optimal sleep is directly linked to optimal
alertness. In turn, optimal alertness directly impacts optimal cognitive
development. What role does healthy sleep play in the developmental
process? Are you ready for this? Night sleepers make smarter children.
In his book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, Doctor Marc
Weissbluth, Director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Children’s
Memorial Hospital in Chicago, references the work of Dr. Lewis M.
Terman. Dr. Terman is best known for the Stanford-Binet Intelligence
Test. His findings, published in 1925, on factors influencing IQ continue
to stand unchallenged to this day, according to Weissbluth. His study
looked at over three thousand children. In every age category, children
who tested with superior intelligence had one common link: all of them
had experienced healthy sleep at night.
In 1983, Dr. Terman’s studies were objectively repeated by Canadian
researchers and the same conclusions were reached. Children with
healthy sleep patterns clearly had higher IQs than children who did not
sleep well.^2
Doctor Weissbluth not only speaks out on the positive aspects of
healthy sleep but the negative aspects of disruptive sleep. He warns
parents that “sleep problems not only disrupt a child’s nights, they
disrupt his days, too, (a) by making him less mentally alert, more
inattentive, unable to concentrate, or easily distracted, and (b) by making
him more physically impulsive, hyperactive, or alternatively lazy.”^3
Infants, pre-toddlers, and toddlers who suffer from the lack of healthy
naps and continuous nighttime sleep may experience chronic fatigue.
Fatigue is a primary cause of fussiness, daytime irritability, crankiness,
discontentment, colic-like symptoms, hypertension, poor focusing skills,
and poor eating habits. In contrast, children who have established healthy
sleep habits are optimally awake and optimally alert to interact with their
environment. These children are self-assured and happy, less demanding,
and more sociable. They have longer attention spans and, as a result,
become faster learners.
Some researchers believe there is a cause and effect relationship with