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Making children sleep early is better than letting them sleep for a longer time, and is also helpful to mothers, according to Australian Women's Weekly.

After examining 3,600 children in a study Growing Up in Australia , researchers looked into their sleeping patterns and health. They formed four groups---"those who slept early and woke up early; those who slept early and woke up late; those who slept late and woke up late; and those who slept late and woke up early."

The first group's kids went to bed at 8:30 p.m., while the others kept postponing their bed-times. The children were aged from 4-5, 6-7 and 8-9 years old.

The study showed that early sleepers and risers had good health.

"These benefits were seen in all early-to-bed kids regardless of whether they woke early or slept late," lead researcher Jon Quach from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute at the University of Melbourne said.

The best health quality was due to not long hours of sleep but early bedtimes.

"This is valuable information for parents, many of whom will know about how important it is for their kids to get lots of sleep overall but not much about how significant the bedtime itself is," Quach said.

Moreover, even mothers showed better mental health due to more quality time on their own.

"So mums and dads, getting kids to bed early is not just great for them. It's good for you too," Quach said.

The study was presented at the Sleep Down Under 2015 conference and was published in the Oct. 23 issue of the Australian Journal of Pharmacy.