Teens slept longer and better during lockdown

A recent study of the University of Zurich (UZH) has found that learning from home during the pandemic lockdown has had a positive effect on the sleep habits and overall health and well-being of adolescents. “Students got about 75 minutes more sleep per night during the lockdown. At the same time, their health-related quality of life improved significantly and their consumption of alcohol and caffeine went down,” says Oskar Jenni, professor of developmental paediatrics, UZH and the study’s co-leader.

For the study UZH researchers interviewed 3,664 high school students in the Canton of Zurich about their sleep patterns and quality of life during the lockdown. They then compared the answers with a 2017 survey of 5,308 young participants. The comparison showed that during the three months schools were closed, adolescents woke up 90 minutes later on school days because they didn’t have to commute to school, and went to bed only 15 minutes later on average. Consequently, their sleep duration increased by about 75 minutes per night.

Pandemic babies score low on development tests

Researchers of Columbia University, USA have found that infants born during the pandemic’s first year scored lower on a developmental screening test of social and motor skills at six months of age compared with children born pre-pandemic.

They studied 255 infants born at the New York Presbyterian’s Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and Allen Hospital between March and December 2020. The study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics (2022) also reveals that infants scored lower on developmental tests irrespective of whether their mothers had contracted Covid-19 during pregnancy.

“We were surprised to find absolutely no signal suggesting that exposure to Covid-19 while in utero was linked to neurodevelopmental deficits. Rather, being in the womb of a mother experiencing the pandemic was associated with slightly lower scores in areas such as motor and social skills, though not in others, such as communication or problem-solving skills. The results suggest that the huge amount of stress experienced by pregnant mothers during these unprecedented times may have played a role,” says Dani Dumitriu, assistant professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Columbia University.

Increased letter spacing in texts increases reading speed

Increased letter spacing and coloured overlays in printed books minimise reading errors for dyslexic and non-dyslexic children, says a study published in the journal Research in Developmental Disabilities (December 2021). The study conducted by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), UK, found that increased letter spacing between words improved the reading speed of children. On average, the dyslexia group of children showed a 13 percent increase in reading speed, while the comparison group of non-dyslexic children showed a 5 percent improvement.

“We found that extra-large letter spacing increases the reading speed of children both with and without dyslexia, and significantly reduces the number of words that dyslexic children skip when reading. We believe that extra-large letter spacing works by reducing what is known as the ‘crowding effect,’ which can hamper the recognition of letters and reduce reading speed,” says Dr. Steven Stagg, senior psychology lecturer at ARU.

Inadequate sleep linked to teen obesity

Insufficient sleep increases the risk of weight gain and other cardiometabolic diseases among adolescents, according to researchers of Brigham Young University (BYU), who studied a group of adolescents at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, USA. “Shortened sleep increases the risk for teens to eat more carbs and added sugars and drink more sugarsweetened beverages than when they are getting a healthy amount of sleep,” says Dr. Kara Duraccio, professor of clinical and developmental psychology at BYU. The study published in the medical journal SLEEP (January), studied the sleep and eating patterns of 93 teenagers. The results showed that teenagers who slept less consumed more junk foods that were likely to spike blood sugar levels. “What’s interesting is that getting less sleep didn’t cause teens to eat more than their peers getting healthy sleep; both groups consumed roughly the same amounts of calories of food. But getting less sleep prompted teens to eat more junk food,” adds Duraccio.