Better sleep beneficial for maths abilities
20/10/2011
Teens who get more time in bed at night are likely to do better in their maths tests at school, according to a study published in the International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology.
Researchers at the University of Granada and Junta de Andalucia in Spain studied the performance of nearly 600 students aged 12 to 19, who answered two questionnaires about the amount and quality of their sleep and general feeling of alertness.
Those who slept more hours tended to get higher marks in maths tests and, perhaps unsurprisingly, did better in physical education too.
While bedtimes and waking times did not seem to exert a significant influence over results, those who take longer to get to sleep after getting in bed had lower academic attainment.
Meanwhile, modafinil, a drug developed in the 1970s, has been found to improve mental clarity in doctors who go without sleep in a study at Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge.
Posted by Elizabeth Mewes
