MONDAY, Oct. 15 (HealthDay News) -- When children can get just a little more sleep each night, their school behavior and alertness levels improve, new research suggests.
"Even small changes in daily life that can allow children to add about a half hour of sleep could have a significant impact," said study author Reut Gruber, director of the attention behavior and sleep lab at the Douglas Institute at McGill University, in Quebec.
The finding is published online Oct. 15 and in the November print issue of Pediatrics.
For the research, Gruber randomly assigned 34 children, aged 7 to 11, to one of two groups. One group had their sleep restricted, with bedtimes moved back so they lost an hour of sleep, for five nights straight.
The other group had their bedtimes moved up, so they gained an hour of sleep time for five consecutive nights.
In all, 33 children finished the study.