If you do one thing this week... get the kids to bed early

Parents, you’ll know that it’s not always easy to get kids to bed at a reasonable hour. By the time after-school activities, homework and dinner are finished, the clock can often have crept well past any planned bedtime.

But new findings suggest that getting kids “early to bed and early to rise” might be worth that extra bit of organisation and effort.

An Australian study, published in the journal Sleep, looked at the relationship between sleep habits, weight and activity levels in 2,200 nine to 16-year-olds.

“Late bedtimes and late wake-up times are associated with an unfavourable activity and weight status profile, independent of age, sex, household income, geographical remoteness and sleep duration,” write the authors.

The study also found that young people who habitually went to bed early and woke up earlier than their contemporaries accumulated 27 minutes more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity a day, according to the University of South Australia.