This follows on from the equally astounding conclusions that ill health, pregnancy, truancy, bad teaching, abandonment and even clinical brain death, also disrupts learning.
'Who’d have thought it?' exclaimed one researcher. 'It’s easy to say with the benefit of hindsight that this was blindingly obvious – but it has taken us four years of research to link a lack of sleep to under- achievement. Yes, we could have spent the time finding a cure for cancer or landing a man on mars, but it’s far easier just to watch teenagers snooze.
What’s next? Do kids need sunlight, food, water….air? We could bury them for a week and see if it affects their SATs. What d’ya think? Cool, huh’.
