Editing Sleep (section)

=== Children ===
{{See also|Infant sleep|Adolescent sleep}}
[[File:WLA metmuseum Bronze statue of Eros sleeping 7.jpg|thumb|Bronze statue of [[Eros]] sleeping, 3rd century BC–early 1st century AD]]

By the time infants reach the age of two, their brain size has reached 90 percent of an adult-sized brain;<ref name=Dahl_2009>{{cite journal | vauthors =Dahl RE | title = The regulation of sleep and arousal: Development and psychopathology | journal = Development and Psychopathology | year = 2009 | volume = 8 | issue =1 | pages = 3–27 | doi = 10.1017/S0954579400006945 | s2cid = 143514600 }}</ref> a majority of this brain growth has occurred during the period of life with the highest rate of sleep. The hours that children spend asleep influence their ability to perform on cognitive tasks.<ref name = "Jenni_Dahl_2008" >{{cite book |veditors=Nelson CA, Luciana M | title = Handbook of developmental cognitive neuroscience |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookdevelopm00nels |url-access=limited | year = 2008 | publisher = MIT Press | location = Cambridge, Mass. | isbn = 978-0262141048 | edition = 2nd |vauthors=Jenni OG, Dahl RE | chapter = Sleep, cognition, and neuron, and emotion: A developmental review. | pages = [https://archive.org/details/handbookdevelopm00nels/page/n819 807]–817 }}</ref><ref name="Scher_2005">{{cite journal | vauthors = Scher A | title = Infant sleep at 10 months of age as a window to cognitive development | journal = Early Human Development | volume = 81 | issue = 3 | pages = 289–92 | date = March 2005 | pmid = 15814211 | doi = 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2004.07.005 }}</ref> Children who sleep through the night and have few night waking episodes have higher cognitive attainments and easier temperaments than other children.<ref name="Scher_2005"/><ref name="Spruyt_2007">{{cite journal | vauthors = Spruyt K, Aitken RJ, So K, Charlton M, Adamson TM, Horne RS | title = Relationship between sleep/wake patterns, temperament and overall development in term infants over the first year of life | journal = Early Human Development | volume = 84 | issue = 5 | pages = 289–96 | date = May 2008 | pmid = 17707119 | doi = 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2007.07.002 }}</ref><ref name="Bernier_2010">{{cite journal | vauthors = Bernier A, Carlson SM, Bordeleau S, Carrier J | title = Relations between physiological and cognitive regulatory systems: infant sleep regulation and subsequent executive functioning | journal = Child Development | volume = 81 | issue = 6 | pages = 1739–52 | year = 2010 | pmid = 21077861 | doi = 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01507.x | doi-access = free }}</ref>

Sleep also influences language development. To test this, researchers taught infants a faux language and observed their recollection of the rules for that language.<ref name="Hupbach_2009">{{cite journal | vauthors = Hupbach A, Gomez RL, Bootzin RR, Nadel L | title = Nap-dependent learning in infants | journal = Developmental Science | volume = 12 | issue = 6 | pages = 1007–12 | date = November 2009 | pmid = 19840054 | doi = 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00837.x | citeseerx = 10.1.1.712.685 }}</ref> Infants who slept within four hours of learning the language could remember the language rules better, while infants who stayed awake longer did not recall those rules as well. There is also a relationship between infants' vocabulary and sleeping: infants who sleep longer at night at 12 months have better vocabularies at 26 months.<ref name="Bernier_2010"/>

Children can greatly benefit from a structured bedtime routine. This can look differently among families, but will generally consist of a set of rituals such as reading a bedtime story, a bath, brushing teeth, and can also include a show of affection from the parent to the child such as a hug or kiss before bed. A bedtime routine will also include a consistent time that the child is expected to be in bed ready for sleep. Having a reliable bedtime routine can help improve a child's quality of sleep as well as prepare them to make and keep healthy [[sleep hygiene]] habits in the future.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Mindell JA, Williamson AA | title = Benefits of a bedtime routine in young children: Sleep, development, and beyond | journal = Sleep Medicine Reviews | volume = 40 | pages = 93–108 | date = August 2018 | pmid = 29195725 | pmc = 6587181 | doi = 10.1016/j.smrv.2017.10.007 }}</ref>