Early to Bed, Early to Rise

by Robert Pondiscio
June 11th, 2010

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Posted in Education News | 3 Comments »

Is it worth battling your child over bedtimes?  A new study shows that children who go to bed early and who have consistent bed times perform better on tasks predicting future reading and mathematics performance.  (H/T: Dan Willingham)

3 Comments »

  1. I always laugh when I read studies that confirm things my great-grandmother knew eons ago…
    The next research question should be, “Have the backbones of parents withered away in recent years?”

    Comment by Tamara — June 11, 2010 @ 11:00 pm

  2. Robert,

    Again there’s a cause and effect or chicken and egg argument here.

    Perhaps parents who know enough, as Tamara says, to understand the wisdom of their grandparents are also taking the myriad other steps to ensure their progeny are successful at school? So standard bed times are just an indicator of parents who have their act in gear, rather than a success factor in its own right?

    Maybe Dan will get the paper and post an analysis?

    Comment by Matthew — June 14, 2010 @ 1:21 pm

  3. Both Matthew and Tamara are right; correlation is not causation. Maybe those kids who eat a healthy breakfast (or who have books at home or who do their homework etc.) also do better at school? Successful families, both parents and children, tend to have a whole cluster of desirable behaviors and attributes; unsuccessful families tend to have fewer desirable behaviors and more problem ones. Just look at the kids who have the latest fancy shoes, gear, cell phones and video games but the parents “can’t” provide them with either breakfast or lunch. I remember an old saying that went something like “irresponsibility on your part does not constitute and obligation on mine.”

    Comment by momof4 — June 23, 2010 @ 12:47 pm

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