This one came across the RSS feeds last week, when I was getting ready to leave town and didn't have time to post, but I really can't let this slide by without comment. The EurekAlert headling really says it all: Sleep disturbances affect classroom performance:
As a night of bad sleep can have an adverse effect on an adult's performance at work the next day, an insufficient amount of rest can also have a negative impact on how well middle or high school students perform in the classroom. A study published in the February 15th issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (JCSM) finds that adolescents who experience sleep disturbances are more likely to receive bad grades in school.
Really? Boy, I'm sure glad we did a research study to clear that one up...
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I like the list of advice the researchers have come up with:
The clincher for me is:
WHAT! That's the only time you can absolutely guarantee teenagers will be doing something active.
*lol* Sometime last year there was an article in Time magazine or so (sorry, no reference) about the poor teenage brain that can't other but than sit in front of a computer until 3am and then has trouble getting up in the morning. including testruns with teenagers who had to wear orange goggles (can't recall why) or sit in front of daylight lamps. they even had a project (applause) with classes starting one hour later which apparently worked quite well.
Eh, you know this is one of my pet peeves and I tend to write a lot about it. I don't think this study adds anything new (or useful) to the story).
The clincher for me is:
Avoid any rigorous(sic) exercise within six hours of your bedtime.
Yeah, but wouldn't it have been funny if they're recommendations had included
"Regular masturbation can be an aid to healthy sleep."?
To the contrary, it provides actual evidence for something 'everyone knows'. There is a history of things 'everyone knows' (stress and spicy food are the primary causes of stomach ulcers, chocolate and coffee are bad for you, women ovulate only once per month, hormone replacement after menopause makes women healthier, putting a solid object in front of a point light source results in complete darkness in the center of a shadow, many other 'everyone knows' things) turning out to never have been actually tested - and to actually be wrong when someone does one of these 'useless' studies.
That it confirms what 'everyone knows' puts everything derived from it on a more solid foundation and is worthwhile science.
Anyhow, from reading the article, it looks like their focus was finding out how many and how badly adolescents are sleep disturbed and what effect it had on grades. Which is worth finding out as well, if your job is to educate them. If you are a primary teacher it is unlikely that it is on your radar that many of your poorly performing students may simply not be getting enough sleep. If you are aware of the problem and know what to look for, it is possible to involve parents in rectifying it.
Well said, BF.