Researchers have claimed that children who sleep less than nine hours every night are more likely to have problems at school. The Autonomous University of Barcelona carried out a study that shows that children between the ages of six and seven years old who do not have the recommended amount of sleep are affected academically. The study leader, Ramon Cladellas, explained that the majority of children are sleeping less than the recommended time and this is hindering their intellectual development and the lack of sleep will never be made good. He pointed out that children are discouraged from going to bed as they have TV’s and a variety of other electronic equipment in their bedrooms. These can keep them awake. An interesting statistic that the team found was that three nights a week, 69 per cent of the children do not arrive home before 9pm and four nights a week it is after 11pm before they go to bed. They added that the brains of adults require a minimum of five hours sleep to function effectively.
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