Children who get a good night's sleep perform better in maths and languages, a new study suggests.

Canadian researchers looked at the link between sleep efficiency and academic performance in children. Sleep efficiency is a term used to described the quality of a person's sleep. It takes into account the amount of time spent actually asleep and the total time spent in bed.

The study involved 75 healthy children who were aged between seven and 11. The children wore a wrist device which monitored their sleep at night.

"We averaged the data over five nights to build the children's habitual sleep patterns and correlated the data with their report card grades," the researchers said.

They found that children with greater sleep efficiency performed better in both maths and languages. Performance in art and science did not appear to be affected.

"We believe that executive functions (the mental skills involved in planning, paying attention and multitasking) underlie the impact of sleep on academic performance, and these skills are more critical in maths and languages than in other subjects," commented lead researcher, Reut Gruber, a clinical child psychologist at McGill University in Montreal.

The researchers suggested that routine check-ups involving children should include questions about their sleep patterns.

"I think many kids might have some sleep issues that nobody is aware of. And if the doctor doesn't ask about it, we don't know that it's there. Regular screening for possible sleep issues is particularly important for students who exhibit difficulties in maths, languages or reading," Ms Gruber added.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Sleep Medicine.