The brain thrives best with rest and regularity, even during the summer holidays

During the summer holidays, the rhythm changes for many people. It is longer light, warmer weather, we have more free time and go on holiday. As a result, we go to bed later and our normal rhythm changes. “Our brains don’t like that at all,” says Jolanda Schieving, pediatric neurologist at the Radboudumc Amalia Children’s Hospital. “Our brain thrives best with rest, cleanliness and regularity. So going to bed at the same time and out in the morning.”

Brain is hard at work during sleep. Schieving: “Many people think that sleep is something passive, but that is absolutely not the case. Our brain has to work actively to ensure sleep. If that is not successful, we sleep worse. The consequences are immediately noticeable: you can concentrate less and have more trouble remembering things.” Fatigue can lead to less good motor skills and Schieving and her colleagues notice this in the summer: “In the summer we see more trauma, children who come to the hospital with brain injuries. They have fallen from a tree or from a slide.”

Stick to the normal rhythm

The importance of regularity is especially important for children and adults with a neurological disorder. Jolanda Schieving specializes in children with movement disorders, such as ataxia. “With the summer approaching, I get a lot of parents at my office who ask for tips for the holiday with their child who has a neurological disorder,” she says. “They benefit even more from sticking to the daily rhythm. Children with epilepsy are more likely to suffer from seizures when rest, cleanliness and regularity are released.”

From research we know that in the month of December, full of changes due to holidays and the Christmas holidays, more epileptic seizures occur. This has never been investigated before the summer, but according to Schieving it is likely that this is also the case: “It is generally known that sleep deprivation and deviation from the rhythm, typical for the holiday period, lead to more attacks.”

By: National Education Guide

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