September 1, 2009
Zzz’s for A’s? Sleep for School Success!
Category: Academy Headlines | Community News Headlines
“What’s an appropriate bed time for my sixth grade child?” This question came to me at a fifth and sixth grade coffee at my school last month, and kind of took me by surprise. While I had expected questions about the curriculum, the interscholastic sports program, or instrumental music, bedtime was not a frequent topic at this type of meeting. I almost always advise parents not to simply accept the oft-repeated “But NOO-body else has to. . .” or “But EVV-erybody . . .” complaints of adolescents, and encourage them to check in with other lateral parent colleagues. On this one, I feared that there were so many variables that an answer was elusive. As luck would have it, I had done some research over the summer on students and their sleep patterns, so I was able to continue the conversation. Here’s the summary that I would like to share: • Toddlers (age 1-3) need about 12 – 14 hours of sleep in every 24-hour period. They should be down to one nap per day to help them reach the magic number. According to the National Sleep Foundation, approximately 85% of teens get less than 8½ hours of sleep per night. The resulting sleep deprivation can have broad effects on students’ ability to be successful in the classroom and in athletics and arts activities. On the academic side, lack of sufficient sleep can affect the ability to pay attention, abstract thinking, creative problem-solving, mental sharpness, and the retrieval of information from long-term memory. On the more physical side, sleep deprivation can affect motor function, delay auditory and visual reaction time, and even diminish cardiovascular performance and endurance. Thus, failing to get enough sleep can diminish all aspects of a student’s experience in school and school activities. The consequences for not getting enough sleep can be considerable. For every hour of sleep that a school-age child fails to get over the course of a week, it saps one point off of her or his functional IQ. So if your teenager is getting only six hours per night, it could lead to a 15-point deficit on those Friday tests! The good news is that the weekend morning catch-up that is so frequent for teens restores the IQ to its pre-deprivation level. There are a few basic patterns that will help you help your child to be a better sleeper (and by extension, a better student, athlete, musician, and even conversationalist!): • Bedrooms should be cool and dark. Teenage sleep deprivation is complicated and compounded by the fact that adolescents’ circadian rhythms (body clocks) truly change in the teenage years. Teens’ biological “night” actually begins and ends later than it does for their parents. Just visit any college dorm at midnight and you’ll see the natural (perhaps nocturnal) habitat of the late adolescent in full flower! Though good sleep habits will pay dividends, the challenges for parents in today’s world of instantaneous world-wide connectivity are very significant in trying to create the best sleep situation for your children. One of those challenges involves re-training ourselves to understand teenagers’ weekend sleep binges. It’s easy in our culture to view sleeping late as a sign of laziness, but I urge you to put it into its broader context. Given their incredibly hectic lives as 21st century citizens, teens who sleep late on weekend mornings are really just trying to catch up and replace what they lost over the course of the week. They certainly may want to get out of washing the car or doing yard work, but they are also simply trying to position themselves to be at their best for the week to come. A little parental indulgence and understanding could bring great rewards! Mark Heller is Head of School at Academy at the Lakes, a Junior K – 12th grade independent school in the North Tampa community of Land O’Lakes. Learn more about Academy at the Lakes by visiting www.academyatthelakes.org
• Pre-School children (ages 3 -5) need between 11 – 13 hours. Daily naps ought to be a thing of the past by about age 5.
• Children ages 5 – 12 need 10 or 11 hours per night in order to operate at peak performance.
• Teenagers (possibly our most sleep-deprived population) need between 8½ and 9¼ hours of sleep per night.
• Bedrooms should be free from computers and TV’s.
• Late-night cell phone calls and text messages can keep teenagers up for hours, so limiting them by whatever means are at your disposal is a wise choice.
• Avoid caffeine beginning in the late afternoon (even chocolate).
• Strive to have a consistent bed time, wake up time, and routine.
• Give your children 30 – 60 minutes of down time before going to bed (no TV or computer).
• Separate work areas and sleep areas. Avoid using the bed as a study space.
____________________________________________________________
i- “Children’s Sleep Habits” 18 September 2008
