Avi Sadeh, a Psychology Professor at Tel Aviv University, said recently: “In real life, the daily struggles between parents and children are around these narrow problems of an extra hour, extra TV show, and so on,” he added, “Too little sleep and more accidents”.
To investigate the effects on children of adding or reducing an hour of sleep, Sadeh changed the number of hours slept by 77 fourth and sixth graders for five days during a week when the children were healthy and there were no special social events or school activities.
Sadeh and his colleagues found an extra hour of sleep can make a big difference. The children who slept longer, although they woke up more frequently during the night, scored higher on tests, Sadeh reported in the March/April issue of journal Child Development.
“When the children slept longer, their sleep quality was somewhat weak, but in spite of this their performance for study improved because the extra sleep was more significant than the reduction in sleep quality. ”Sadeh said. “Some studies suggested that lack of sleep as a child affects development into adulthood and it's more likely to develop their attention disorder when they grow older.”
“Previous research has shown children in elementary school need at least nine hours of sleep a night on a regular basis”, said Carl Hunt, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research in Bethesda, “and high-school-age children need somewhat less, adding the results of insufficient sleep could be serious.”
“A tired child is an accident waiting to happen,” Hunt said.“And as kids get older, toys get bigger and the risks higher.”Hunt also said too little sleep could result in learning and memory problems and long-term effects on school performance.
“This is an important extension of what we already know,” Hunt said of Sadeh’s research, “adding sleep is as important as nutrition and exercise to good health. To put it into reality, parents should make sure they know when their children actually are going to sleep and their rooms are conducive to sleeping instead of playing.”
53. What is Child Development?
A. A new story. B. A popular book.
C. A periodical magazine. D. A TV programme.
54. How many persons are exactly mentioned in the text?
A. One. B. Two. C. Three. D. Four.
55. The underlined phrase "conducive to" ( in the last sentence) could be replaced by ______.
A. helping to produce B. influenced by
C. full of D. acceptable of
56. The following statements are right EXCEPT _______ according to the passage?
A. There are some daily struggles between parents and children because of having nothing in common with extra rest time.
B. The children who sleep longer are weak in their study.
C. Lack of sleep as a child has great effect on their development into adulthood.
D. In General, children in elementary school need at least nine hours of sleep a night.
