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Do you have a problem with your child not wanting to sleep at night? Don’t worry, according to scientists this is a sign of developed intellect!
Based on research, gifted children need less sleep than their peers. Professor Peter Fleming, a specialist in health and development, says that children who often wake up tend to have higher levels of intelligence and mental well-being.
“There is a connection between a high level of intellectual and overall development and disrupted sleep.”
Moreover, according to Fleming, the idea that a child should sleep through the night without interruption is a modern invention. From an evolutionary perspective, more frequent waking is much more logical for them.
“Human children are not destined for long periods of sleep; it is not useful for them and there is no evidence that long, uninterrupted sleep has any positive benefit. Maybe that is not what most parents want to hear,” he says.
According to the professor, children love daytime sleep and most often wake between 18:00 and midnight.
“From a biological standpoint it is a great advantage, because at this time they will be able to get maximum attention from their primary caregivers (parents), as they will be less distracted. So the child’s behavior is biologically sensible and justified. The other thing is that it does not meet the expectations of the 21st century,” he notes.
Professor Dasit Narvaezová, a psychologist at the University of Notre Dame, claims that neither adults nor children are adapted to uninterrupted night sleep.
“Even adults don’t sleep through the night, they just don’t remember that they regularly wake up,” she says. “We sleep through the night for eight hours because during the day we go to work or perform other strenuous activities. If we look into human history, we find that this is not normal.”
A human child is born less developed than other mammals, so their brains are not yet adapted to life.
“A human is born 9–18 months earlier compared to other animals. Other animals can walk and feed themselves almost immediately, whereas we cannot. When we are born, we resemble embryos both outwardly and in our development,” the professor adds.
“Therefore it is necessary to keep the child calm while the systems of their brain are still developing. The truth is, it works at only 25% compared to an adult human brain. After birth it therefore requires an external womb, an external nest.”
In short, if your child wakes you at 02:00, don’t get upset! Be proud that your little genius is growing! Maybe you’ll feel better because of it, what do you say?
