Sleep helps children remember words – study

Wednesday 21st November 2012

According to new research at the University of York and Sheffield Hallam University a good night's sleep can help develop a child's vocabulary.

Academics from the two Universities spent weeks in three North Yorkshire boarding schools coaching 53 seven to twelve year old pupils language skills. Every day for up to an hour the children where told a selection of made up words – similar to real ones but unique for research purposes. Some of the children were told these words in the morning and tested 12 hours later on the same day and the others were told them on the evening and asked to recall them the morning after.

The results showed that the group that had to recite them back on the same day struggled and had forgotten most of what they had learned, while those that recited them back the day after did much better. It was also found that the children that were taught and tested on the same day who had earlier forgotten the new vocabulary also found the words came back to them after a night's sleep.

Tags: sleep study research university school vocabulary

Category: Sleep Research

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