Kids need even more sleep than the average adult. A Canadian study found children who were poor sleepers as toddlers were more likely to have behavioral and cognitive problems when they reached school.
The study focused on a group of children who were followed from the age of five months to six years.
Those who slept less than ten hours a night for their first six years were three times more likely to perform poorly on a picture–vocabulary test, and were at three times greater risk for hyperactivity.
Even the children who became better sleepers by the age of three and a half were about twice as likely to have cognitive problems than kids who consistently slept 11 to 12 hours a night.