Everyone knows that children function better after a good night’s sleep. A new study by Melbourne, Australia, researchers, reported in The Time of India, reveals that nearly 25% of children ages 6 and 7 have poor sleep habits that affect their health, learning ability, and behavior.

“If you have enough sleep, you have enough concentration … the brain is still growing, they are still taking in a lot of information," says lead researcher Jon Quach. "Children are able to make the transition well if they are able to interact with peers and teachers and concentrate in class and take on the workload."

Quach goes on to say that a lack of sleep can cause the brain to be overwhelmed, and if sleep problems are resolved, outcomes for learning will improve.

Quach and a team of researchers from the Centre for Community Child Health at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute studied nearly 4,500 children, measuring and recording their sleep behavior at ages 4 to 5 and again at 6 to 7. Of the children studied, one-third reported poor sleep habits.

Twenty-three percent of the children in another survey were reported to have sleep problems; of those, about 6 per cent were classified as moderate or severe. Sleep problems included children who were reluctant to go to bed, unhappy sleeping alone, having restless sleep, or waking during the night.

In a comparison of the two surveys, about 10 percent of the second group resolved their problems, while 3 percent continued to sleep poorly and an additional 3 percent developed new problems.

The resolution of sleep problems is beneficial to the children in terms of their ability to learn. Quach states that if children “have a resolving sleep problem, and that's treated or just naturally goes away, then their outcomes will improve. “