So, for most of us, eight hours of sleep is excellent and six hours is no good
cognitive deficits: “You don’t see it the first day. But you do in five to seven days. Unless you’re doing work that doesn’t require much thought, you are trading time awake at the expense of performance.”
the sleep-deprived among us are lousy judges of our own sleep needs. We are not nearly as sharp as we think we are.
In what was the longest sleep-restriction study of its kind, Dinges and his lead author, Hans Van Dongen, assigned dozens of subjects to three different groups for their 2003 study: some slept four hours, others six hours and others, for the lucky control group, eight hours - for two weeks in the lab.
What works better is praise for effort, and feedback that encourages kids to try different strategies (“Can you think of another way to do it?”)
Experimental studies suggest we can help these kids improve their working memory skills with practice. Computer-based training programs ask kids to pay attention to new information and repeat it back.
Any time we ask kids to play by the rules, we’re encouraging them to develop self-control. But some games are more challenging than others.
kids benefit when parents talk to them about their feelings, show empathy, and discuss constructive ways to cope
Planning is an important component of self-discipline
music training can boost a child's ability to inhibit inappropriate responses
When parents are too controlling, or enforce discipline with threats and harsh punishments, kids may lose important opportunities to regulate themselves.
harsh parenting tactics predict child aggression and other behavior problems
To get along in the classroom, kids need to pay attention, follow directions, stay motivated, and control their impulses. So we might expect self-control to play an important role in academic achievement. Recent studies support the idea.