To do this, they analyzed the data of 8.3 thousand children aged 9-10. At the same time, experts paid the closest attention to the duration of sleep and the effect of this factor on the brain of children two years later.
It turns out that children who sleep less than nine hours a night face visible physiological changes in their brains in the future. Therefore, they had a smaller volume of gray matter and areas of the brain responsible for attention, memory, and inhibitory control. Of course, in comparison with children sleeping within the norm.
Moreover, the scientists found that the differences persisted even after two years. And this allows us to talk about the long-term harms of insufficient sleep in children.
Source: Ferra
