Introduction
Dr. Louis Wildman
Too many students, teachers, and administrators are not getting enough sleep, just
as too many are over-weight. This booklet includes important information which
educators need to improve student, teacher, and administrator health and improve student
achievement.
Prior to reading the information reported in this booklet, I was under the
impression that schools should start at an early hour to get students in the habit of coming
to work on time. I thought that learning that “discipline” of getting up early, even
without enough sleep, would be good for students. I have now changed my mind.
Even though I still believe students should get to bed early enough to get a
recommended amount of sleep, delaying the start of school to conform with life patterns
would probably improve student health and academic achievement. Recent evidence for
this comes from the December 2008 issue of The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine,
which reports that when Lexington, Kentucky pushed back the start of their middle and
high schools by one hour, not only did students get more sleep, traffic accidents involving
teenagers went down.
Additional recent evidence of health benefits comes from the December 2008
issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. This study followed 495
healthy men and women, ages 35 to 47, for five years, measuring their sleep patterns with
electronic monitoring devices and examining their arteries with CT scans. The group, as
a whole averaged 6.1 hours of sleep a night, but those who averaged an extra hour’s sleep
every night reduced their risk of coronary artery calcification, a major risk factor for heart
disease. The effect of that one additional hour of sleep was equivalent to lowering
systolic blood pressure to a normal 120 from 136. Lack of sleep is also tied with a
greater risk of weight gain, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
The January 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine reports a study by
Sheldon Cohen and colleagues at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University in which he
found that eight-hour or more sleepers were one-third less likely to get colds than those
who slept less than seven hours or slept fitfully.
School administrators have very stressful jobs. They need to make life-changes
which allow them to get at least nine hours of sleep each night.
Contents
How Much Sleep Do We Need? Mary Hommowun
1
The Average Amount of Sleep Students Are Getting, Holly Martin
3
Reasons for Lack of Sleep in Adolescents, Seth Groller
5
Homework’s Effect on Sleep, Paul Saaty
8
Sleep Deprivation and Life Span, Rachelle Lopez
9
What Can We Do When We Just Cannot Get Enough Sleep? Kristine Schlachet
12
Sleep and Learning, Tim Chamberlin
17
Sleep Deprivation and Student Achievement, Kate Peattie
21
Age-Related Sleep Patterns As Related to School Start Time, Dana Mazzocco
23
The Effect of Sleep Deprivation on Teacher Performance in the Classroom,
Fayanne Gabel
26
Sleep and Worry, Vincent Oliver
28
Sleep Requirements of the Past and Present, Kelly Ferko
30
An Annotated Bibliography On Sleep, Virginia Ann Terracciano
32
How Much Sleep Do We Need?
Mary Hommowun
Sleep is a necessity in our everyday lives. It is an occurrence found to be a
requirement in every living thing. However, there is a wide variance on the amount of
sleep needed. Sleep needs vary throughout age groups and the effects of not getting
enough sleep change as well.
When discussing the amount of sleep needed, there are a multitude of variances
that alter the number of hours. According to the Sleep Foundation’s Children’s Sleep
Habits, circadian rhythms, or the rhythms that control the sleep-wake cycle, are regulated
by light and dark. These develop as early as six weeks in a newborn. These circadian
rhythms are the start of our requirements for sleep. Many studies have been done to
determine the optimal amount of sleep needed.
According to Rosekind (1997), the required sleep an individual needs is based
upon sleep quantity and quality that produces the optimal level of waking alertness. So,
our needs for sleep are based on our highest level of alertness during the day paired with
the sleep we receive. Rosekind’s study found that when humans are given adequate time
to sleep uninterrupted, they typically sleep for a given amount of time. When alertness is
tested during the day, the hours slept combined with that alertness determine the
recommended hours of sleep. These hours are divided by age as recorded in the Sleep
Foundation’s Children’s Sleep Habits: 3-5 year olds need 11-13 hours of sleep; 5-12 year
olds need 10-11 hours of sleep; 11-17 year olds need 8-9 hours of sleep; and adults need
7-9 hours of sleep. These recommendations coincide with a previous study by Dr. H.P.
Roffwarg. His study, performed at the Sleep Research Laboratory in Montfiore Hospital,
determined these same recommendations. His results fell into the range as described by
the Sleep Foundation. During his studies, he also discovered REM (rapid eye movement)
sleep.
More recently, another study was done to inquire about sleep variability among
different ages. This study interviewed individuals about their sleep habits at different age
levels. According to Iglowstein’s study, humans need less sleep as they get older.
Infants sleep around 9-14 hours per night, and slowly reduce down to 7-9 hours of sleep
in adults. This study confirmed the recommended hours of sleep as previously
determined by Roffwarg and the Sleep Foundation.
These sleep recommendations are important to the performance of students.
When people do not get the recommended amount of sleep their body needs, they do not
function with optimal performance, according to Rosekind. Steven Dowshen mentions
that these recommendations are averages reported for large groups of individuals, and are
simply recommendations. There is considerable variation due to “basal sleep needs” and
“sleep debt.” Basal sleep needs refers to “the amount of sleep our bodies need on a
regular basis for optimal performance,” where sleep debt is the sleep that we are lacking
based on our basal needs. When we have a sleep debt, we tend to need to repay that
sleep, so even the normal amount of sleep will not be good enough. In general, Rosekind
finds that the sleep loss effects include, “increased reaction time, cognitive slowing,
memory problems, time-on-task decrements, and performance variability.” For children,
these effects are rather different, as Downshen (2007) concludes. It is found that
symptoms that occur with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also produce
when children ages 6-11 are sleep deprived. With teenagers, their symptoms of being
sleep deprived include: decreased attentiveness, decreased short-term memory,
inconsistent performance, and delayed response time (Downshen, 2007). Teenagers
more closely reflect the symptoms of adults who are sleep deprived. In either case, the
effects of sleep deprivation greatly deteriorate the functionality of students. They are
lacking attention skills, cannot perform with regularity, and reduce their memory
capabilities.
When determining a child’s daily sleep needs, it is imperative to determine how
well they function within their day, how sleepy they feel, and their irritability level.
Although there are recommendations for the amount of sleep that is needed, each person
has their own specific needs that should be addressed.
References
Downshen, S., “All about sleep,” Kids Health, 2007. Retrieved December 2, 2008 from:
http:/kidshealth.org/
Iglowstein, I., “Sleep duration from infancy to adolescence: Reference values and
generational trends, Pediatrics, 2003, 111: 302-307.
Roffwarg, H.P.; Muzic, N.N. and Dement, W.C., “Ontogenetic development of the
human sleep-dream cycle,” Science, 1966, 152:604-619.
Rosekind, M.R., “From Laboratory to Flightdeck: Promoting Operational Alertness,”
Proceedings of Conference on Fatigue and Duty Time Limitations. September 16, 1997.
London: Royal Aeronautical Society, 1997.
The Sleep Foundation, Children’s Sleep Habits. Retrieved December 2, 2008 from:
http:www.sleepfoundation.org/site/c.huixkjm0ixf/b.24192995/k.5aab/childrens_sleep_ha
bits.htm
The Average Amount of Sleep Students Are Getting
Holly Martin
According to the National Sleep Foundation, people aged 13 to 22 need 9 to 10
hours of sleep each night. Only 20% of American teens get the nightly recommended
number of hours, according to the Sleep Foundation’s poll released in March of 2006.
The poll interviewed 1,602 parents and their children aged 11 to 17 between Sept. 19,
2005 and Nov. 29, 2005 in the Providence Rhode Island area. The poll also found that
28% of high school students said they fell asleep in class at least once a week, while 14$
arrive late for school or miss it entirely because they sleep in. A study conducted in the
elementary schools in 2005 by the Journal of School Health, shows that the majority of
the 200 students surveyed indicated that they did not sleep enough during the week. 39%
of the children said they didn’t sleep enough 2 to 4 days per week. 25% said they slept
too little 5 to 7 times a week. Teachers backed up this finding by reporting that many
students either yawned or slept in class. This survey was conducted in Muncie,
Indianapolis. Both of the above studies were inconclusive on how the surveyed groups
were picked. However, in 2001, the National Institute of Health made an estimate, based
on numerous pediatric sleep studies, that 12% to 15% of all students may have a sleep
disorder impairing their daytime functioning that will not disappear without treatment.
The 2006 “Sleep in America” poll put out by the National Sleep Foundation,
discovered that sixth graders get an average of 8.4 hours of sleep a night, but twelfth
graders get just 6.9 hours. The “Cleveland Children’s Sleep and Health Study” released
in 2004 studied the different sleep patterns in gender and ethnic minorities. 755 (50%
female, 35% ethnic minority) children ages 8 to 11 years old from a community-based
sample of children were used in the study. The study took place in Cleveland, Ohio. The
study showed that as age increased the number of hours of sleep per night decreased. At
all ages minority boys slept less than non-minority boys and girls and minority girls.
43% of 10-11 year old minority boys reported less than the mean 9 hours of sleep.
Another study done by Northwestern University of the United States showed that
high school students lose an average of two hours of sleep per night once the school
semester starts. For this study researchers tracked the sleep patterns of 60 high school
seniors that were in an advanced placement biology class. Each student was required to
keep a sleep diary from the week before school started until the 14th day of September
and then again for the month of November and February. Students lost an average of 120
minutes of sleep per night during weekdays and an average of 30 minutes per night on the
weekends.
References
Amschler, Denise, “Does Your Child Lose Sleep When School Starts?” Pediatrics, June
1, 2005. Retrieved November 30, 2008 from http://www.familycorner.com/education
“Few Teens Get Enough Sleep,” CBS News, March 28, 2006. Retrieved November 30,
2008 from http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/03/28
Luginbuehl, M.; Bradley-Klug, K.; Ferron, J.; Anderson, W. and Benbadis, S., “Pediatric
Sleep Disorders: Validation of the Sleep Disorders Inventory for Students,” School
Psychology Review, January 1, 2008, 37(3), 409-431.
“Sleep Behavior in an Urban U.S. Sample of School-aged Children, Arch Pediatric
Adolescent Medicine, October 2004, 158. Retrieved December 10, 2008 from
http://www.archpediatrics.com
Reasons for Lack of Sleep in Adolescents
Seth Groller
The 2006 National Sleep Foundation “Sleep in America” poll found that only
about 20% of adolescents regularly get the optimal 9 hours of sleep on school nights.
There is an increase in the demand of their time from school, sports, and other social and
extracurricular activities. In addition, television, computers, the internet, cell phones and
caffeine products all can lead to difficulty falling asleep, causing children to have
nightmares, and disrupting their sleep. About three-quarters of students in the National
Sleep Foundation survey drank at least one caffeinated beverage daily. Almost one-third
reported that on most days they had two or more caffeinated drinks. Children who watch
television close to bedtime are more resistant to falling asleep, have experienced anxiety
around sleep, and get fewer hours of sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation
pool, 97% of the students have at least one electronic device in their bedrooms. When
students do not get adequate sleep, they are more likely to have mood swings, behavioral
problems such as hyperactivity and cognitive problems that hinder their ability to learn.
It was originally thought that adolescents did not need the same number of hours
of sleep as younger children. Studies have indicated, however, that adolescents do not
have less of a need for sleep (Carskadon, 1990; Carskadon, Harvey, Duke, Anders, and
Dement, 1980). Children who experience adequate sleep appear to function better, are
generally healthier and have a higher academic performance at school than those who do
not. Studies have suggested links between less sleep and higher levels of depressed
mood, fatigue, and sleepiness (Roberts, Roberts, and Chen, 2001; Wolfson and
Carskadon, 1998). Inadequate and poor quality sleep is also associated with diminished
cognitive functioning and poor academic performance at school (Wolfson and
Carskadon, 1998; Dahl, Holttum, and Trubnik, 1994). In higher school, academic
demands increase and grading becomes more competitive, resulting in an increased need
to study and do homework. The time available for homework after school gets shifted to
the evening because of increased socializing with peers and activity involvement in the
after-school hours (Larson and Richards, 1991). Adolescents’ perceptions of demands in
the central domains in their lives—family, peers, and school—increase and potentially
compete with one another for the time and attention of teenagers, and stress is known to
interfere with individuals’ ability to obtain adequate rest (Sadeh and Gruber, 2002).
Finally, the increased availability of television and computers in the homes and bedrooms
of many American adolescents present attractive evening diversions that can cut into time
that would otherwise be spent sleeping (Dahl, 2002). Given the number of factors that
stand in the way of adolescents’ ability to obtain ade3quate rest, it is not surprising that
adolescents, parents, and teachers consistently report that adolescents do not get enough
sleep (Wolfson and Carskadon, 1998).
Studying, socializing with friends, and stressful demands have been suggested in
prior survey research to be associated with adolescents’ sleep time (Carskadon, 2002;
Sadeh and Gruber, 2002). These are common activities and experiences during the
adolescent years and can either compete with the time available for sleeping or arouse
teenagers to a level that makes it difficult to relax at bedtime. Finally, helping the family
with chores and other tasks is an activity that has shown variability across different ethnic
groups and, at higher levels, could conceivably present an additional demand on
adolescents’ lives that would cut into the time they have available for sleeping (Fuligni,
Yip, and Tseng, 2002).
The National Sleep Foundation advises that adolescents set a regular bedtime and
wake-up schedule (even on weekends) to help achieve 9 or more hours of sleep every
night. They also encourage a relaxing bedtime routine, such as reading for fun or taking
a warm bath or shower. They suggest keeping the bedroom comfortable by keeping it
dark, quiet and cool. In addition, they recommend removing television sets, computers
and other distractions from the bedroom, and setting limits on their use before bedtime.
Lastly, they encourage adolescents to avoid all caffeine after lunch.
References
Carskadon, M.A., “Patterns of sleep and sleepiness in adolescents,” Pediatrician,1990,
17, 5-12.
Carskadon, M.A. “Factors influencing sleep patterns in adolescents,” in Carskadon, M.A.
(Ed.), Adolescent sleep patterns: Biological, social, and psychological influences.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 4-26.
Carskadon, M.A.; Harvey, K.; Duke, P.; Anders, T.F. and Dement, W.C., Pubertal
changes in daytime sleepiness,” Sleep, 1980, 2: 453-460.
Dahl, R. E., “The regulation of sleep-arousal, affect, and attention in adolescence: Some
questions and speculations,” in Carskadon, M.A. (Ed.), Adolescent sleep patterns:
Biological, social, and psychological influences. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 2002,
Dahl, R. E.; Holttum, J. and Trubnick, L., “A clinical picture of childhood and adolescent
narcolepsy,” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
1994, 33, 834-841.
Fuligni, A. J.; Yip, T. and Tseng, V., “The impact of family obligation on the daily
behavior and psychological well being of Chinese American adolescents,” Child
Development, 2002, 73, 302-314.
Larson, R. and Richards, M. H., “Daily companionship in late childhood and early
adolescence: Changing developmental contexts,” Child Development, 1991, 62:284-300.
Roberts, R. E.; Roberts, C. R. and Chen, I.G., “Functioning of adolescents with
symptoms of disturbed sleep,” Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2001, 30: 1-18.
Sadeh, A. and Gruber, R., “Stress and sleep in adolescence: A clinical-developmental
perspective,” in Carskadon , M.A. (Ed.), Adolescent sleep patterns: Biological, social,
and psychological influences. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002, 236253.
Wolfson, A. R. and Carskadon, M.A., “Sleep schedules and daytime functioning in
adolescents,” Child Development, 1998, 69:875-887.
Homework’s Effect on Sleep
Paul Saaty
I did some informal research on my own. I decided to discuss homework with a
small group of students from fourth grade through twelfth grade and while the sample is
too small and too concentrated to be truly representative, it does seem that at most grade
levels, there is too much homework being given. The Newhall School District has
guidelines that state homework should take no more than ten minutes per grade level,
starting in kindergarten. This would mean 50 minutes of homework in fourth; 60 minutes
in fifth; and 70 minutes in sixth grade.
Marzono and Pickering (2007) state that there is some research support for these
amounts to be effective if the work is meaningful and feedback is provided.
Unfortunately, it appears that many students are spending only about 20 minutes in fourth
grade on work they claim is too easy, but some fifth and sixth grade students report doing
as much as an hour and a half to two hours of homework per night. Older students in
high school report needing to spend three to four hours a night to keep up with the mound
of homework they get in their accelerated and “AP” classes. In fact, the high school
students I talked to say that they stay up late most nights and feel stressed while sleeping.
They report that the amount of homework definitely cuts into the number of hours they
sleep and the quality of sleep they do get.
It is clear that homework needs to be meaningful and the amount needs to be
controlled within the guidelines of the district. Inconsistency between grade levels adds
to the stress that may be contributing to children lacking the quality, restful sleep that
they need.
Reference
Marzano, R. J. and Pickering, D. J., “The case for and against homework,” Responding to
Changing Demographics, 64: 74-79.
Sleep Deprivation and Life Span
Rachelle Lopez
It is not new news that not getting enough sleep is bad for your health. Recently,
sleep deprivation researchers have been able to be more specific about the ill effects
chronic sleep deprivation has on your health and life span. Failing to get enough sleep or
sleeping at odd hours leads to an increased risk of major illnesses. Although sleep
deprivation is a national trend, it seems that some professions, especially education, are
more likely to have sleep issues than others.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, there are hourly recommendations
for nightly sleep. Adults should get somewhere between 7 and 9 hours of sleep a night.
People who sleep less than recommended are more likely to become obese, according to
a study presented at the 2004 National American Association for the Study of Obesity
(NAASO) Annual Meeting. Columbia University researchers, analyzing data from the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, found that subjects between the ages
of 32 and 59 who slept 4 hours or fewer were 73% more likely to be obese than subjects
who slept between 7 and 9 hours nightly. Obesity itself can lead to health issues such as
diabetes and heart disease.
Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain that helps
regulate other hormones and maintains the body’s circadian rhythm. The circadian
rhythm is an internal 24-hour time-keeping system that plays a critical role in
determining when we fall asleep and when we wake up. Darkness stimulates the
production of melatonin while light suppresses its activity. Exposure to excessive light in
the evening or too little light during the day can disrupt the body’s normal melatonin
cycles. According to an article that was written by several professors of cellular and
structural biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the
following is known about melatonin disruption:
Light at night has two major physiological actions, i.e., it disrupts circadian
rhythms and suppresses the production of melatonin by the pineal gland.
Moreover, both these changes are light intensity and wavelength dependent. Both
human epidemiological and experimental studies on animals have documented
that a potential negative consequence of biological rhythmic disruption and
nocturnal melatonin inhibition is cancer initiation and growth In epidemiological
studies, the frequency of each of the following cancers has been reportedly
increased in individuals who routinely work at night or whose circadian rhythms
are disrupted for other reasons: breast, prostate, endometrial, and colorectal.
Sanjay R. Patel of Harvard Medical School has recently studied sleep deprivation
among more than 82,000 nurses and found that there was an increased risk of death
among those who slept less than six hours a night. This lack of sleep literally puts the
body into a state of high alert and it actually produces more stress hormones, which drive
up blood pressure in turn increasing the risk of heat attacks and stroke. Similarly,
Alexandros N. Vgontzas of Pennsylvania State University, has found people who are
sleep deprived have elevated levels of interleukin 6, an inflammatory cytokine, in the
blood that indicates a heightened state of inflammation in the body, which is a major risk
factor for heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes.
Chronic lack of sleep affects health in many negative ways. Denise Amschler and
James McKenzie, both researchers at Ball State University, state that educators are
among the groups highest at risk. After surveying 109 teachers, administrators, and staff,
Amschler and McKenzie found that nearly one fourth of teachers say their teaching
abilities are significantly diminished, and over half admit to making errors or having to
miss work due to a serious lack of sleep. Sleepy teachers are also at a higher risk of
providing insufficient and inferior classroom instruction, and are less likely to be aware
of safety issues for themselves and their students. According to the Ball State Study,
43% of teachers slept an average of six hours or less each night, about 64% said they felt
drowsy during the day; and only about a third admitted to getting a good night’s sleep
most of the time.
After surveying the twenty-three member teaching staff of a small Southern
California elementary school with about 600 students, all twenty-three of them responded
that they either stay up late grading papers and planning, when they should be sleeping,
are awaken in the middle of the night by thoughts of work and have difficulty returning to
sleep, or they disrupt their sleep by waking up early to come into work to get things done
from the day before. This sample of the population seems to support the claims made by
Amschler and McKenzie of Ball State University that educators are at a high risk for
sleep deprivation issues, as 100% of this teaching staff admit to being chronically sleep
deprived. With what we know of the connections between a lack of sleep and health
issues, one might speculate that there should be an increased level of critical illness
among teachers.
Autoimmune diseases arise from an overactive immune response of the body
against substances and tissues normally present in the body. A 2001 study from the
University of Connecticut Health Center, substantiates that excess mortality from
autoimmune diseases among teachers occur relatively early in their careers, and teachers
experience an occupational exposure that increases their risk of autoimmune diseases.
That risk has been calculated up to twice that of other professions, according to Dr.
Stephen J. Walsh who prepared the University of Connecticut Health Center study.
Interestingly enough many auto-immune diseases can be categorized by inflammation of
various organs. If you recall, inflammation, according to Alexandros N. Vgontzas of
Pennsylvania State University, is a side effect of sleep deprivation. Other auto-immune
diseases affect the heart, and blood, and are associated with a general slow down of
immune function, which have all been linked to sleep deprivation as well.
Clearly sleep deprivation is hazardous to one’s health and educators are at a
greater risk than most of the population. It is important that the risks of sleep deprivation
are understood and that educators make sure they are getting the seven to nine hours of
sleep they need each night. Their lives depend on it.
Recommended Hours of Sleep (National Sleep Foundation)
Infants:
0 to 2 months: 10-1/2 to 18 hours (including naps)
2-12 months: 14 to 15 hours (including naps)
Toddlers/Children:
12-18 months: 13 to 15 hours (including naps)
18 months – 3 years: 12 to 14 hours (including naps)
3 – 5 years: 11 to 13 hours (including naps)
5-12 years: 9 to 11 hours
Adolescents:
8 ½ to 9 ½ hours
Adults:
7 to 9 hours
References
“Autoimmune Disease Hits Teachers Hard,” Education World. Retrieved December 10,
2008 from http://www.educationworld.com
Esposito, Lisa, “Lack of sleep linked to obesity,” DOC News, March 1, 2005, 2(3), 10.
“Excess Autoimmune Disease Mortality Among School Teachers.” Retrieved December
5, 2008 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11469459?dopt=Abstract
National Sleep Foundation, “How much sleep is enough?” Retrieved December 9, 2008
from http://www.sleepfoundation.org
Reiter, Russel J.; Dun-Xian, Tan; Korkmaz, Ahmet; Erren, Thomas C.; Piekarski, Claus;
Tamura, Hiroshi and Manchester, Lucien C., “Light at night, chronodisruption, melatonin
suppression, and cancer risk: a review,” Critical Reviews in Oncogenesis (2007), 13(4):
303-28.
“Teacher Sleep Deprivation Costs $100 Billion Dollars Annually.” Retrieved December
1, 2008 from http://www.insideindianabusiness.com
University of Maryland Medical Center, “Melatonin.” Retrieved December 10, 2008
from http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/melatonin-000315.htm
Vgontzas, Alexandros N., “Circadian Interleukin-6 Secretion and Quantity and Depth of
Sleep,” Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 84(8), 2603-2607.
What can we do when we just cannot get enough sleep?
Kristine Schlachet
As it has been established, sleep is an important aspect of a person’s life. It helps
a person to learn, improves memory, and it is time to regenerate cells throughout the
body. Unfortunately, many times sleep is not easy to come by. There may be many
reasons a person is struggling to sleep. These reasons may include: stress at work or
home, working long hours, taking on many responsibilities, new children at home,
illness, and anxiety, to name a few. There is a higher need to address these issues with
teenagers and young adults. During this time of their lives teens are learning how to
create a balanced life for themselves and are, therefore, forming habits that will stay with
them into the future. It is important that those adults working with teenagers have some
strategies and ideas about how to help them get more sleep and sleep better.
Why can’t I sleep?
When talking to teens about sleeping, the teen may acknowledge the fact that they
cannot sleep at night. There are scientific reaons that teenagers may be more likely to
struggle to sleep than the older or younger population. Melatonin is a hormone that is
produced that signals the body to sleep. Melatonin is produced in an adult body
beginning around 10 p.m., while in a teen ager it is sometimes delayed until 1 a.m. This
does seem to change with age, but it can lead to difficulty waking for the start of the next
day, as well as moodiness and a decrease in academic performance. Inducing a dark
environment through the use of eye shades has proven to increase the production of
melatonin, therefore aiding in beginning the sleep cycle.
Dr. Mary A. Carskadon is the director of the Chronobiology and Sleep Research
Laboratory at Bradley Hospital in Rhode Island. Dr. Carskadon conducted a three-week
study of sleep patterns in adolescents, during which fourteen adolescents, ages 9-14 years
old, noted their sleep and waking times on their own and with the help of aides to block
light while trying to sleep. During the three weeks, Dr. Carskadon and her colleagues
found that keeping to a consistent sleep-wake schedule helped adolescents sleep better.
This also adjusted the adolescents’ ability to wake and be more active throughout the day.
When those involved with the test were given a way to block out light, such as eye
shades, their bodies produced more melatonin. This increase in melatonin, because of the
controlled darkness, helped the participants sleep 8-10 hours without interruption. This is
compared to the six hours the participants were able to sleep on their own schedule.
According to Dr. Caskadon’s research (1996), a set routine of time to sleep and time to
wake, as well as keeping a teens room dark, will help ensure the teens are more able to
sleep the recommended amount each night.
There are times when it is not the body keeping a teenager from sleeping but an
overactive schedule. Stress is one of the major reasons people struggle to get a good
night’s sleep. Nutrition, anxiety and depression are all other reasons a person might
struggle to sleep at night. All of these factors need to be addressed with teenagers. The
factors can be treated and it will lead to a more successful life experience for those
involved.
Nutrition
Because of the link between the production of melatonin and sleep, there is a
desire to know how to increase the amount of melatonin in a person’s diet. Melatonin
can be found in foods such as ginger, tomatoes, bananas, and barley in small amounts.
However, “oats, sweet corn, and rice are the best sources of melatonin,” according to
Iowa State University (2003). There are some serious health risks to ingesting large
amounts of melatonin. It would not be advised for teens to begin supplements without
direction of a health care professional.
There are other suggestions for foods to eat before going to bed. Foods that
include tryptophan have been known to help the body produce serotonin, which leads to
feeling calm and sleepy. Foods that might be suggested to teens include: a glass of skim
milk, fat free yogurt, sliced apples with peanut better, wheat toast with tomatoes or
turkey. According to the American Academy on Sleep Medicine (2008), it is suggested
that large meals are not consumed too close to the desired sleep time.
While it is important to teach teens about what to eat before bed, it is also
important to inform them of what eating habits might be stealing their ability to sleep.
Caffeine is the number one sleep stealer. Teens are often drinking more caffeine than
they should and not considering the side effects. “Young people are using caffeine, the
most widely used psycho stimulant in the world, to compensate for chronic inadequate
sleep” (Graham, 2000).
Stress
Anyone in education would find it difficult to find a teenager who does not live
under some stress. As teens mature and age there is an increase of stress on their bodies.
There are many strategies that can be used and experimented with to help increase sleep.
These include exercising or meditating, creating a quiet sleep environment, adhering to a
sleep schedule, and creating a sleep ritual to help the body prepare for sleep each night.
Dr. Clete A. Kushida of Stanford University’s Sleep Disorders Clinic explains
“establish a pattern of relaxing behaviors (e.g. Meditation, a warm bath) close to bedtime
and limiting work to the early evening may help reduce stress” (Ascend Media, 2007).
Dr. Ralph Downey III of Loma Linda University’s Sleep Disorders Center suggests that a
person not stay in bed for more than 20 minutes without sleep. Downey suggests
participating in a quiet calming activity for 20 minutes before trying to sleep again. If
stress is keeping a teen awake, writing down thoughts or concerns helps to organize the
concerns. Those thoughts and concerns can be addressed the next day with a clear mind
and a good night’s rest (Ascend Media, 2007).
All of these suggestions can be useful for teens and adults. Taking the time to get
the thoughts and concerns out of the mind during the day will lead to better sleep at night.
The American Academy on Sleep Medicine (2007) suggests beginning rituals each night
that help prepare the body for sleep. Taking the time to relax can help teens fall asleep
faster and therefore be more successful in school.
What is the school’s role in helping with sleep?
There are many different thoughts regarding sleep and schools. Most of these
opinions relate to students sleeping in classes. If a student is sleeping in class, what
should a teacher do? When the child is young, sleep in class is sometimes overlooked. A
college student might try to avoid falling asleep in class to avoid public humiliation, or
the student does not go to a particular class on occasion. When a teen falls asleep, neither
option is plausible. Teachers who find their students falling asleep are encouraged to
ensure there is academic rigor, and the material is both challenging and interesting to the
students. It may be more valuable to call home and have a conversation with the parents
about the concern. This may lead to the teacher being better informed on what is going
on at home that may be part of the problem of not getting enough sleep at night.
In addition to home contact, the school may consider adjusting the class schedule.
Melatonin is produced in a teen until approximately 8 a.m. Keeping this in mind, a later
start time for the school day may lead to an increase in student performace. A start time
closer to 8:30 may be a better time for students to be prepared for learning. This would
allow the students to sleep a few more minutes, maybe an hour, and therefore they would
be more rested and ready to work when in class. Teenagers have been complaining about
the start time for schools for years.
In the 1996-97 school year, schools in Edina, Minnesota adjusted their school
start time from 7:20 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. “Kyla Wahlstrom, associate director of the Center
for Applied Research and Educational Improvement of the University of Minnesota,
reviewed early studies from the schools” (Graham, 2000). Through review of surveys of
teachers, key stakeholders, students and parents, Wahlstrom found improvements in the
students’ behaviors as well as the alertness of the students. Many teachers noticed an
improvement in class participation, noting that fewer students were falling asleep on the
desks. The counselors at the school took note of fewer discipline problems, as well
(Graham, p. 23, 2000).
Another study was completed in 2008 regarding school start times. Authored by
Dr. Orna Tzischinsky of Emek Yesreel College in Israel, the study focused in 47 eighth
graders from two classes to study the effects of start times on learning and cognitive
ability. The two classes were split into a control and experimental group, the
experimental group started class one hour later for one week. During the second week,
both groups started school at the original start time of 7:30 a.m. Both groups were
monitored on their sleep-wake patterns. At the end of each week, the students were given
a cognitive test. The results of the cognitive tests gave reason to believe a later start time
increases student learning. These results were based on the fact that the experimental
group was able to sleep, on average, 51 minutes longer than the control group. This
additional sleep had a positive effect on the cognitive abilities of the students (McCann,
2008).
There are some concerns about after school activities with a later start time. The
schools that have changed their start time have not found any significant changes
regarding the work hours of the teens or participation in after-school activities.
Conclusion
Part of learning is learning about being successful. There is a need to provide
students with information so that they are better prepared to manage their time and
develop good sleeping habits. Many different aspects of getting a good night’s sleep can
be incorporated to help the students become successful.
Teaching students about nutritional supplements might not be the best route until
there is more known about the supplements. Teaching students about different foods that
can be consumed before going to sleep can be beneficial. If a teen is having difficulty
sleeping, knowing what can be consumed to help the body relax can be helpful for
preparing for sleep.
Part of the health curriculum in a middle school environment could address
handling stress. This is a large reason why some teenagers do not get enough sleep: too
much stress. If teens are taught before high school about how to handle str4ess and
strategies for reducing stress, there is a greater likelihood they will utilize those strategies
in high school. Less stress leads to greater beneficial sleep.
As administrators, it is necessary to be cognizant of the needs of the students.
Teens have different needs than young children or adults. Delaying the start of school by
thirty minutes might be all it takes to have more alert students in class. More alert
students can learn the presented material better. If more students are learning, then there
is a greater success rate for the students. This all leads to a constructive learning
environment. If delaying the start time is not an option, scheduling testing and more
difficult classes around the students’ alertness levels might make a difference as well.
References
Ascend Media, “AASM Issues sleep tips for stressed out Americans, Sleep Review: The
Journal for Sleep Specialists (2007). Retrieved December 11, 2008 from
http://www.sleepreviewmag.com/news/2007-04-16_01.asp
Carskadon, M.A.; Acebo, C.C.; Richardson, G.; Tate, B. and Seifer, R., “Entrainment of
sleep and dim-light salivary melatonin onset (DLSMO) in young adolescents using a
fixed schedule” (1996). Retrieved from
http://www.websciences.org/cftemplate/NAPS/archives/indiv.cfm?ID=19960558
Graham, M., Sleep Needs, Patterns, and Difficulties of Adolescents: Summary of a
Workshop. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2000.
Iowa State University Extension, “Melatonin” (2003). Retrieved December 3, 2008 from
Iowa State University Extension Website:
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/nutrition/supplements/melatonin.php
McCann, K., “Delaying school start time by one hour positively affects adolescents’
cognitive performance” (2008). Retrieved December 9, 2008 from Bio-medicine.org
website: http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Delaying-school-start-time-byone-hour-positively-affects-adolescents-cognitive-performance-21642-1/
Wagner, K., “Beat the back to school blues: Getting enough sleep may improve success
in students’ academic and personal lives,” (2008). Retrieved December 3, 2008 from
American Academy on Sleep Medicine Web site:
http://www.aasmnet.org/Articles.aspx?id=1024
Sleep and Learning
Tim Chamberlin
Throughout history, most people have understood the value of a person getting
enough sleep so that an indivdiaul will be healthy and productive in their life. What has
not been as easily understood is the value enough sleep has on the learning process, even
though we have almost instinctively known. The sage advice to “sleep on it” has been
passed down through the generations, although most people would look at this as a way
to avoid rash decisions. Benjamin Franklin said “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man
healthy, wealthy and wise.” Having enough sleep could very well help the individual to
make not only a careful decision, but a wise one as well because more is going on in our
brain while we sleep than we earlier believed, and it is this sleep that helps the man to
prosper and become wealthy because of the knowledge obtained after getting to bed early
and getting enough sleep.
What Benjamin Franklin didn’t know, however, is the different patterns of sleep
various individuals and age groups have. While it is helpful for many individuals to get
to bed early, and get up early, for many people and age groups this is not feasible. Dr.
Piott Wozniak states that “the use of an alarm clock contradicts the goals of education” (
Wozniak, p. 2). For teen agers, getting up early goes against what Wozniak calls their
“natural waking time.” Citing a graph of an average teenager, Wozniak states that “if
grades are converted to the forgetting index, we can see that this student forgets 53%
more on school-days when he needs to get up early” (Wozniak, p. 3). In other words, for
most teenagers they have more capacity to learn on the days when they are not even in
school.
Sarah Spinks, producer of the Frontline special “Inside the Teenage Brain,” states
that “researchers discovered … an internal biological clock … that sometimes acts
against the sleep-wake cycle by keeping us alert when we should be feeling tired”
(Spinks, 1). All of us have this internal biological clock, and the clock differs depending
on our age. For elementary school children, and for most people in early middle age,
going to bed early and waking up early works well. For people in the later stages of
middle age, they tend to go to bed early, but then wake up too early. For teenagers they
seem to get a “second wind” about 9 p.m. and often stay up until mid-night or later.
Mary Carskadon, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University, states
that in her research she has noticed a “forbidden zone” for teenagers in the evening hours.
“So they actually feel great at night and for many of them that makes it harder for them to
even consider trying to go to be earlier” (Spinks, p. 10). For them, waking up with the
alarm clock for an early class usually leaves them sleep deprived (Spinks, p. 2).
One of the problems that this sleep deprivation creates for teenagers is a
hindrance on their ability to learn. Spinks goes on to cite research that shows that sleep
helps an individual to learn and to memorize. She refers to tests done at Harvard Medical
School that show that “the brain consolidates and practices what is learned during the day
after the students (or adults, for that matter) go to sleep” (Spinks, p. 3). Tests were given
to students to see how many times they could catch a bal in a cup. A student who caught
a ball 50-70% of the time discovered that after a good night’s sleep their percentage went
up to about 85%. Students “who got less than six hours sleep either did not improve or
actually fall behind” (Spinks, p. 3).
When students are asked to complete a cognitive procedural task sleep helps here
as well. According to Dr. Robert Stickgold of Harvard University “the brain consolidates
learning during two particular phases of sleep.” During REM sleep, he hypothesizes, the
brain receives proteins that “strengthen the connections between nerve cells consolidating
the new skills learned the day before” (Spinks, p. 3). According to Steven Roberts,
author of “Let’s Sleep on It,” the information a person receives “during the day is
examined and meaning is derived. Learning that took place during the day is firmed up”
(Roberts, p. 1-2). The information that a person receives during the day is often
confusing to an individual, with the proper amount of sleep the brain tends to bring this
information into a comprehensible unit; therefore enabling the person to have greater
understanding.
In a study done in 2001, eighteen participants were trained on two tasks, the
“Mirror Trace” and the “Tower of Hanoi” test. After an evening of sleep, “the time taken
to finish the task dropped significantly from training to retest…” (Smith, p. 1). The
authors of the study stated that the “findings supported our hypothesis that REM sleep
increases would follow acquisition of the cognitive procedural tasks. Both the number
and density of REMs showed higher values following acquisition …” (Smith, p. 2).
Carlyle Smith, a professor of psychology at Trent University, states that during
REM sleep, the number of eye movements a person has goes up. This eye movement
shows an increased intensity, which means that the brain is doing more (Spinks, p. 12).
What the brain may be doing is consolidation. Professor Spyridon Drosopoulos states
that “sleep has commonly been thought to benefit memory consolidation by protecting
newly encoded memory traces from interference produced by events encoded when the
memory trace is fragile” (Drosopoulos, p. 170). Cramming for a test, according to Smith,
is a mistake because the extra hours of studying don’t make up for the loss of sleep.
“You’ve got to learn some, you’ve got to sleep some, you’ve got to learn some more, and
it builds” (Spinks, p. 13). He says that “in studies where people are simply allowed to
sleep after they do the study, you see this jump in performance that’s quite remarkable”
(Spinks, p. 12). A person who crams before a test never has a chance to receive adequate
sleep. They never give heir brain a chance for consolidation.
Drosopoulos was one of a group of professors who conducted a study that
attempted to replicate a 1967 study looking at how sleep would affect word-pair
association. Participants learned a list of words (A) that had to be associated with a target
word (B) and then learned a second list of words where the original cue word (A) was
associated with a differ5ent target word (C). They found that “recall on the sleep
condition in comparison with the wake condition was distinctly improved for the first AB list. Recall on the second A-C list did not differ between the two conditions”
(Drosopoulos, p. 172). Even though the A-C pairing did not show improvement, the
study team concluded “that sleep indeed counteracts, retroactive interference, as copared
with wakefulness” (Drosopoulos, p. 175).
Therefore students should “sleep on it,” with the “it” in this case being whatever it
is that they need to learn. By sleeping on it they will understand it better and most likely
remember it longer. For many people Benjamin Franklin’s advice works well;
unfortunately for teenagers it doesn’t work as well. According to Mary Carskadon telling
teenagers to just go to bed earlier usually doesn’t work because it is difficult for them to
fall asleep, in the “forbidden zone,” and because they often have to get up so early, they
are usually sleep deprived, hindering their ability to learn.
What can be done then? One solution would be to start school later. This creates
a problem, especially in high school, because the sports programs need to be in the
afternoon and those programs can not usually start too late in the day. Creating good
sleeping habits can help, according to Sarah Spinks. “Teens can do something to bring
their internal body clock forward. Sleep experts say dimming the lights at night and
getting lots of daylight in the morning can help. Having a routine bedtime of 10 p.m.,
sleeping in a cool environment and turning off music, the internet, and television would
help reset the body clock” (Spinks, p. 4). Some experts have also suggested getting
plenty of exercise.
While it is true that not all experts agree that sleep helps learning, a great many
do, and current research tends to show a link. Much of the emphasis in education today
is focused on learning strategies and how to improve student performance so that test
scores rise. It is quite possible that a major strategy, often overlooked, is working to
make sure students get enough sleep.
References
Dement, William C., The Promise of Sleep. New York: Delacorte Press, 1999.
Drosopoulos, Spyridon; Fischer, Stefan; Schulze, Claudia and Born, Han, “Sleep’s
Function in the Spontaneous Recovery and Consolidation of Memories,” Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 2007, 136.
Roberts, Steven, “Let’s Sleep on It,” Coe.
http://sdsu/eet/articles/sleep_memory/index.htm
Smith, Carlyle T.; Nixon, Margaret and Nader, Rebecca, “Post-training Increases in REM
Sleep in Memory Processing and Provides a Biological Marker of Learning Potential,”
Learning and Memory, 2007.
Spinks, Sarah, “Inside the Teenage Brain.”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/from
Wozniak, Piotr, “Poor Sleep = Poor Learning.”
http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep
Sleep Deprivation and Student Achievement
Kate Peattie
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2007), members of our
society today average one and a half less hours of sleep per night than they did a century
ago. This cumulative sleep deprivation results in decreased physical health, obesity,
behavior problems, depression, ADHD, and a myriad of other physical and mental
disorders. Even more alarmingly, research has shown that cognition, decision-making,
memory and brain development are significantly impacted by as little as a half an hour
loss of sleep each night. (American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2007) These effects
are compounded in children, whose brains are developing at a rapid rate.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children need between 9 and
11 hours of sleep each night for optimal brain development and function. However, most
students from kindergarten to twelfth grade get much less than that. Because of this
chronic and cumulative lack of sleep, students tend to come to class ill prepared to learn.
(Read, 2008) According to one study, children between the ages of 13 and 19, students
who averaged C, D or F grades had 25 minutes less sleep than students who had A’s and
B’s. Students who followed different sleeping patterns on weekends also tended to have
poor grades. (Wolfson, 1998)
There is a consistent and significant correlation between sleep deprivation and
poor student achievement. Dr. Paul Suratt from the University of Virginia found that
there was an average of a seven-point decrease in vocabulary scores for students who
changed their sleeping patterns over the weekend. This is comparable to the amount of
damage to the IQ as lead exposure. Brain function is severely limited after twenty-four
hours of continuous wakefulness. According to Mark Mahowald, professor of neurology
at the University of Minnesota Medical School, “One complete night of sleep deprivation
is as impairing in simulated driving tests as a legally intoxicating blood alcohol level.”
(Bronson, 2007) Sleep is necessary for brain development, memory conversion, and
learning. Sleep deprivation decreases learning and memory function. Even mild sleep
loss can cause significant deficits in cognitive development and functioning.
Conversely, allowing children more sleep per night seems to improve their
academic performance. A study in Israel monitored 77 children between the ages of 9
and 12. The students were tested on motor speed, reaction time, visual attention, symboldigit substitution, visual digit span, serial digit learning, working memory, and learning
strategies. The first two nights the students were told to get their usual amount of sleep
and baseline scores were taken. For the next three nights 40 children were asked to sleep
one hour more than usual. Thirty-seven students were asked to decrease their amount of
sleep by one hour. The tests were given again on the sixth day. It was found that the
students whose sleep was restricted did the same or worse than they had on their baseline
tests. However, students who had an extra hour of sleep each night improved in several
areas including reaction time and symbol-digit substitution. (Sadeh, 2003)
During times of concentration, like testing, the prefrontal cortex exercises what is
called “executive function.” This includes the organization of thoughts, forming
predictions, and anticipating the consequences for actions. Sleep deprivation impairs the
ability of the prefrontal cortex to do its job. When faced with a problem on a test, a tired
students will often get “stuck” on a wrong answer, even when they know the answer is
wrong. Their brains are unable to come up with creative solutions or problem-solve to
find the correct answer. (Bronson, 2007)
With our focus on achievement testing and our insistence that all our students
become proficient, we need to focus our attention on all factors that affect student
performance. We often look to improve parent involvement, offer remediation, and
improve the delivery of instruction. Of course, all of these remain tremendously
important. However, none of these are very effective if students are coming to school too
tired to learn or function.
References
American Academy of Sleep Medicine, “Sleep is the right ingredient for academic
success,” ScienceDaily, August 2, 2007. Retrieved December 2, 2008.
Bronson, Po, “Snooze or lose” (October 17, 2007). Retrieved December 3, 2008 from
http://nymag.com/news/features/38951
Read, Bryan F., “Sleep deprivation: high school psychology” (2008). Retrieved
December 3, 2008 from http://www.apa.org/ed/topss/bryanread.html
Sadeh, A.; Gruber, R. and Raviv, A., “The effects of sleep restriction and extension on
school-age children,” Child Development, 2003, 74: 444-455.
Wolfson, A.R. and Carskadon, M.A., “Sleep schedules and daytime functioning in
adolescents,” Child Development, 1998, 69(4): 875-887.
Age-Related Sleep Patterns As Related to School Start Time
Dana Mazzocco
Schools across the country base their arrival and dismissal times on convenience,
logistical issues, bus schedules, extra-curricular activities, or past practice. Do arrival
times for school impact students’ educational achievement? There is research that
correlates the sleep patterns of students to school hours. As children age, their sleep
patterns shift, which can have profound consequences for education.
Traditionally, schools have later arrival times for elementary students and earlier
start times as the students increase in age. High school students usually have the earliest
arrival time of all grade levels. This practice is in direct opposition to the biological
needs of the teenage student. Biological changes during puberty affrect an adolescent’s
internal sleep-wake clock. “Many adolescents are physiologically not ready to fall asleep
until 11 p.m. or later,” explains Dr. Mary A. Carskadon, Sleep Research Lab Director at
Bradley Hospital/Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and National Sleep
Foundation Pediatric Council Chair. As children transition from childhood to
adolescence they change physically, emotionally, and have changes in their sleep/wake
patterns. Beginning with puberty and lasting to the late teen years, “the brain chemical
melatonin, which is responsible for sleepiness, is secreted from approximately 11 p.m.
until approximately 8 a.m.” Since this is the normal biological rhythm of the average
teenager, the typical middle and high school student is unable to fall asleep much before
11 p.m. regardless of what time they go to bed. Sleep deprivation in adolescents has also
been found in research conducted in Korea. This study surveyed 1,457 students and had
the same results. The National Sleep Foundation found there are significant
discrepancies between weekday and weekend sleep patterns and these discrepancies
increase with the age of the student.
Most high schools start around 7:15 a.m. High school students rise at
approximately 6 a.m. to prepare for school. This is the time their brains are still in a
biological sleep mode. There are several effects of this sleep-deprived functioning in
school. It has been shown that sleep deprivation is associated with memory deficits
(Dinges & Kribbs, 1991; Nilsson, Backman & Karlsson, 1989), impaired performance
and alertness (Carskadon & Roth, 1991; Dinges & Kribbs, 1991), as well as time-on task
decrements and optimum response shifts (Dinges & Kribbs, 1991). The specific loss of
REM sleep has also resulted in memory loss (Smith, 1995; Li, Wu, Shao & Liu, 1991).
Dujardin, Guerrien & Leconte (1990) found that REM sleep affects information
processing, while Maas (1995) listed the consequences of REM sleep loss as including:
unintended sleep, increased irritability, anxiety and depression, decreased socialization
and humor, hyper sexuality, mental fatigue with reduced memory concentration, and
decreased ability to handle complex tasks and be creative.
Data has been collected and analyzed at high school districts in Minnesota and
Kentucky that changed school start time to after 8:30 a.m., the ideal start time based on
adolescent sleep research. The Center for Applied Research and Educational
Improvement (CAREI) conducted a study to discover and examine the factors inherent
when considering changing the starting time for high schools in the Minneapolis/St. Paul
area. This study included seventeen school districts in Minnesota. It gathered
information from multiple sources and perspectives, including students, teachers, parents,
school administrators, community members, and medical researchers. Fayette County,
Kentucky is a large suburban district that has over 32,000 students and five high schools.
It also changed to a later start time for high school students. Kentucky conducted their
study seven years after schools changed to a later start time. Both studies found that
students attending late start schools reported less incidents of depression, a reduction in
drop out rates, increase in hours of sleep, higher grades, and less absenteeism and
tardiness. Students attending late start schools reported they worked fewer weekday
hours at an after school job, but worked the same amount of hours during the weekend as
their counterparts at early rise schools. They had a similar amount of athletic practice
during the week, and the same number of hours of weekend organized sport activities.
The schools reported less discipline problems and a higher graduation rate. There was no
significant difference in the participation in extra curricular activities. Kentucky schools
reported after two years of changing to a later start time a 15% decrease in traffic
accidents in Fayette County while the statewide rate of crashes increased 8% over the two
years after the change. Data results from middle schools had similar results as high
schools.
In the schools studied in the United States as well as overseas, students benefited
from a later start time in the middle and high school grades. There are several obstacles
schools may have to overcome in implementing a late start time. These include
transportation, after school activities, teachers, families, students, and the community. It
is important to remember the primary function of school is to provide the best education
possible. According to the longitudinal research completed across seventeen school
districts in Minnesota, a late start time for most middle and high school students
improved attendance, increase the number of hours of sleep per student and improved
their overall education.
References
Carskadon, M.A. and Roth, T., “Sleep restriction,” in: Monk, T. (Ed.), Sleep, Sleepiness,
and Performance. Chichester, U.K.: John Wiley, 1991, 155-167.
College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota, Later Start
Times For High School Students, September 30, 2008.
cehd.umn.edu/Pubs/Researchworks/sleep.html
Dinges, D. F. and Kribbs, N. B., “Performing while Sleepy: Effects of ExperimentallyInduced Sleepiness,” in: Monk, T. (Ed.), Sleep, Sleepiness and Performance. Chichester,
U.K.: John Wiley, 1991.
Dujardin, K.; Guerrien, A.; and Leconte, P., “Sleep, brain activation and cognition,”
Physiology and Behavior, 1990, 47(6), 1271-8.
Li, D.; Wu, Z.; Shao, D. and Liu, S., “The relationship of sleep to learning and memory,”
International Journal of Mental Health, 1991, 20(1), 41-47.
Maas, J., “Asleep in the fast lane,” paper presented at The Master’s Forum, November
1995.
National Sleep Foundation, Changing School Start Times: Fayette County, Kentucky.
http://www.sleepfoundation.org/site/c.hulXKjMOlxF/b.2511919/k.E074/Changing_Scho
ol_Start_Times_Fayette_County_Kentucky.htm
Nilsson, L. G.; Backman, L.; and Karlsson, T., “Priming and cued recall in elderly,
alcohol intoxicated and sleep deprived subjects: A case of functionally similar memory
deficits,” Psychological Medicine, 1989, 19, 423-433.
Smith, C., “Sleep states and memory processes,” (Special Issue: The function of sleep),
Behavioral Brain Research, 1995, 69(1-2), 137-145.
The Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, University of
Minnesota, School Start Time Study Technical Report, Volume II: Analysis of Student
Survey Data. http://cehd.umn.edu/CAREl/Reports/summary.html#SchoolStart
Yang, Chang-Kook ; Kim, Jung K.; Patel, Sanjay Rajnikant and Lee, Jeong-Hyeong,
“Age-Related Changes in Sleep/Wake Patterns Among Korea Teenagers,” Pediatrics,
January 2005, pp. 250-256.
The Effect of Sleep Deprivation on Teacher Performance in the Classroom
Fayanne Gabel
The topic of sleep has long been discussed and studied. It has been linked to
performance, stress, and alertness in many professions and in students. However, it has
yet to be specifically studied in the classroom from the perspective of teachers’
performance.
We know that teachers often report feeling stress in their job, which could be
correlated to sleep problems. In a study of 492 college students, conducted by Dusselier,
Dunn, Wang, Shelley and Whalen (1994), it was found that students who had more selfreported sleep difficulties (37%) also reported a greater frequency of experiencing stress
(67.4%).
We also know that while teachers are not in a vehicle for their job, their job
requires great attention to detail and alertness. Lack of sleep could negatively contribute
to their performance in the classroom. In studies of driving, which also requires attention
to details and alertness, it was found that lack of sleep was related to many automobile
accidents or near misses. Greer, Joins, and Tew surveyed anesthesiology residents
regarding their alertness after being on-call. 17.4% of residents reported having an
accident during their residency after being on-call; 72.4% reported narrowly missing
being in an accident; and 84.5% reported being concerned for their safety while driving
due to fatigue. Further, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that
truck drivers involved in fatigue-related crashes had an average of 5.5 hours of sleep
while those who were involved in non-fatigue related crashes averaged 8 hours of sleep.
Lastly, lack of sleep could be cause for teachers having momentary lapses in
alertness and a decline in short term memory. Both of these attributes are key to
successful presentation of lessons and classroom management. In an article by Stanley
Coren (1997), “Epidemic of Sleepiness Threatens Public Safety,” Cohen states that “One
common result of a large sleep debt is the occurrence of micro sleeps. A micro sleep,
which usually lasts from 10 seconds to a minute, is a period when the brain enters a state
of sleep—regardless of what the person is doing. The affected individual often does not
know that this momentary blackout has occurred. Yet, the consequences may be
dramatic and even tragic.” He goes on to say that “Micro sleeps are not the only factor
related to sleep debt. Such deprivation also reduces one’s ability to focus for prolonged
periods and causes a decline in short-term memory.”
It is my intention to ask a group of teachers to log their sleep activity over a
period of one month. Then, I will conduct drop in observations to track an aspect of
classroom management, namely, on-task behavior. I will also look at discipline referrals
written by those teachers over the study period and see if there is a correlation between
discipline problems and sleep. Lastly, I will ask teachers to log their daily feelings of
stress.
References
Cohen, S., “Epidemic of Sleepiness Threatens Public Safety,” Forum for Applied
Research and Public Policy, 1997, 12: 143-147.
Dusselier, L.; Dunn, B.; Wang, Y., Shelley, M. and Whalen, D., “Personal, Health,
Academic, and Environmental Predictors of Stress for Residence Hall Students,” Journal
of American College Health, July/August 1994, 54:18-24.
Greer, R.T.; Joins, D. R. and Tew, J. D., “Incidence of Automobile Accidents Involving
Anesthesia Residents After On-Call Duty Cycles,” Anesthesiology, September 1997, 87.
Sleep and Worry
Vincent Oliver
According to Jon Ginsberg, an undergraduate psychology major at Emory
University, there is a direct correlation between academic worry and sleep disorder. In
the December 2008 issue of Emory’s The Journal of Young Investigators, Ginsberg
reports on several experiments that he carried out through the university’s psychology
department. While the journal is written by undergraduate honors students, the
experiments are overseen by professors and their findings are double checked by advising
professors.
The Ginsburg experiment began with the selection of a sample group. The
sample group was selected by taking every 25th student from the undergraduate student
directory. In 2007 there were 12,075 undergraduate students, so 483 were selected to
participate. Once the sample was generated, an e-mail was sent to the 483 students with a
subject line of “Relieve Your Stress.” When the students opened the e-mail they were
greeted by a cartoon image of a cartoon character sitting at a desk, with a caption that
asked “stressed out from mid-terms?” Beneath the cartoon image the selected students
were asked to participate in the experiment. Those who chose to participate were then
directed by a hyper-link to www.surveymonkey.com where the survey would be taken.
Out of the 483 students e-mailed, 55 agreed to participate. The sample group consisted
of 20 males and 35 females. Of those who agreed to participate, 8 were freshmen, 9 were
sophomores, 23 were juniors, and 15 were seniors.
The survey consisted of questions based on the “Sleep Disturbance Ascribed to
Worry Scale” and the “Academic Stress Scale.” The questions requested information
about the participants’ gender, class schedule, daily habits and sleep habits. The results
of the survey were used to test Ginsburg’s hypothesis that “students who have more
academic worries will report less sleep than those with less academic worries.” Ginsburg
measured worry by taking the average total worry score for each participant based on the
Academic Stress Scale and comparing it with findings from a similar study that had been
carried out in several Midwestern universities in 1986. The figures from the worry test
were then compared to the average amount of sleep the participant reported. The mean
average was 7.05 hours. Ginsburg showed that there was a correlation of r=.39 between
worry and sleep, and that those who worried most about mid-term tests got less sleep.
To support his finding, Ginsburg sites several other experiments, including a test
carried out by J.J. Pilcher and A.S. Walter at Bradley University. Walter and Pilcher
examined the sleep patterns of 44 Bradley University students and found that sleep
deprivation negatively affected performance on the “Watson Critical Thinking
Appraisal.” In that experiment, they calculated a correlation of r=.42. Ginsburg also
sites William E. Kelly’s 2004 article, “Sleep-Length and Life Satisfaction in a College
Student Sample,” in which Kelly surveyed 212 male and female students and found that
length of sleep among undergraduate students was related to GPA with a correlation of
r=.38.
References
Ginsberg, Jon, “Academic Worry as a Predictor of Sleep Disturbance in College
Students,” The Journal of Young Investigators: An Undergraduate, Peer-Reviewed
Science Journal, Vol. 19, Issue 7, Jan. 2009.
Kelly, William E., “Sleep-Length and Life Satisfaction in a College Student Sample,”
College Student Journal, Vol. 38, 2004.
Pilcher, J. J. and Walter, A. S., “How Sleep Deprivation Affects Psychological Variables
Related to College Students’ Cognitive Performance,” Journal of American College
Health, 1997, 46(3), 121-6.
Sleep Requirements of the Past and Present
Kelly Ferko
Sleep requirement is a difficult subject to address historically, due to the fact that
most research done on sleep did not begin until the lat 19th century. Sleep is a silent and
unrecorded activity, which means that past records of sleep patterns are not readily
available. In the past, scholars did not study topics such as bedtime rituals, sleep
deprivation, or sleep patterns (Ekirch, 2001). Adults did not pay much attention to sleep
in general and child-rearing manuals did not deal with sleep as a problem. Although
historians have noted that sleep patterns before modern times were less rigidly defined
than they are now, matters such as the time and the length of sleep before the 19th century
remain a mystery (Ekirch, 2001). It wasn’t until the 1890’s and particularly in 1920 and
onward that sleep became a greater problem in the eyes of experts and more
documentation became available.
Several factors explain why sleep was not a priority for researchers in the past.
First, naps were common for adults and children and historians noted that adult and
children’s sleep patterns were not an issue. Secondly, due to the absence of electricity,
nighttime entertainment was drastically reduced which facilitated getting children to bed.
Thirdly, if parents had issues with getting their children to sleep they used opiates or
alcohol to help. It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that stress disorders and
general tension as seen in modern life increased concerns about sleep. The growing use
of electricity and the popularization of caffeinated drinks added to the notion of sleep as a
problem. By the 1920s child-rearing manuals began to address children’s sleep as a
problem. From that point on, sections in magazines, research, and pediatricians began to
devote time to the topic of sleep and how much was needed. Doctors took the lead on
recommending increasing amount of sleep, getting children to bed, set bedtimes, and
establishing nighttime rituals as a vital part of socialization of children, as well as a
protection of their health.
Dr. L. Emmet Holt, a member of a Child Health Committee in 1910, argued that
the American child was not getting enough sleep. He believed that modern schooling,
modern life, child labor laws, and ignorance were at fault. He recommended, and was
backed by the federal Department of Interior in its Bureau of Education, that 13 hours of
sleep for children 5-6, 12 hours for those 6-8, 11 hours for those 10-12, 10 ½ hours for
those 12-14, 10 hours for those 14-16 and 9 ½ hours for those up to 18, was required
(Stearns, et al., 1996). This was quite a change from the 19th century advice that pointed
to 8 hours for children and 6 for adult men.
In 1919, Dr. Emerson commented on children’s sleep in a Woman’s Home
Companion article. He stated that children need 11-12 hours of sleep into their teens, and
more before the age of 10. He was clear that parents needed to keep their children free
from over-fatigue every hour of the day and getting the required amount of sleep would
alleviate this problem.
By the 1920’s and 30’s a number of articles highlighted the problem of sleep
deprivation among children and pinned the blame on modern schools. Dr. Max Seham
believed that the long hours of the public school system and the forcing of all children to
learn through the same process regardless of physical or mental ability posed a problem
(Stearns, et al., 1996). While some people advocated shorter school days, most advised
parents to teach their children proper sleep habits. A 1931 table recommended 14-16
hours of sleep for infants, 13-14 for toddlers, 12-13 until 8 years of age, on down to 9 for
16-year olds. They believed that a good night’s sleep was vital for the health of a
growing child.
Dr. Friz Talbot of Harvard Medical School asserted that schools were not the only
one to pin the blame on for children’s chronic fatigue. He believed that girls were
reading too much at night and boys listened to the radio until “all hours of the night.”
Experts suggested that parents should provide school-age children with proper sleeping
habits, while teachers must avoid overworking children or making them tense. Children
in grade school were said to require at least twelve hours a day and 14-year-olds needed
at least nine and a half hours in order to prevent chronic fatigue.
The modern day recommendation for the amount of sleep needed for children has
not changed all that much from the 1920’s. Experts recommend that school-aged
children (5-12 years) need 10-11 hours and teens (11-17 years) need 8.5-9.5 hours (Feber,
1985).
References
Ekirch, Roger A., “Sleep We Have Lost: Pre-industrial Slumber in the British Isles,” The
American Historical Review, Vol. 106, Issue 2 (2001).
Ferber, R., Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problem. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985.
“How Much Sleep Do You Really Need.” [Online] Available at
http://www.sleepfoundation.org
“Sleep.” [Online] Available at Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and
Society. http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Re-So/Sleep.html.
Stearns, Peter N.; Rowland, Perrin and Giarnella, Lori, “Children’s Sleep: Sketching
Historical Change,” Journal of Social History, 1996.
An Annotated Bibliography On Sleep
Virginia Ann Terracciano
http://www.sleepeducation.com
This website has information about how sleep affects people, how to personally evaluate
one’s sleep habits, sleep studies, sleep disorders, and common treatments. It also
includes case studies. It has information on sleep and children. This website is
sponsored by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and includes sleep analyses:
Overnight Sleep Study: Doctors call this study a polysomnogram. It is used to
help detect a variety of sleep disorders. It is most often used to find out if
someone has a sleep related breathing disorder. This group of disorders includes
sleep apnea.
CPAP Study: This study is used to set the right air pressure for CPAP therapy in
patients with sleep apnea.
Home Sleep Test: A home sleep test can detect obstructive sleep apnea in adults.
It involves the use of a portable-monitoring system that is small enough to use at
home.
Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT): This sleep study is used to measure
how alert one is during the day. It shows whether or not one is able to stay awake
for a defined period of time.
Nap Study (MSLT): Doctors call this study a Multiple Sleep Latency Test
(MSLT). This is mainly used to find out if someone has narcolepsy. It charts
how quickly one falls asleep during quiet daytime situations. It also measures
how fast one enters the stage of REM sleep.
http://www.drpaul.com/behavior/sleep.html
This website has a sleep chart for children ages birth to 18 with recommended hours of
sleep. It has other helpful information about nutrition and other parenting advice. Dr.
Paul’s Health and Wellness award winning website in collaboration with Universal
Health Communications Inc. has won 28 web-based awards. He is certified by the
American Board of Pediatrics and The Royal College of Physicians of Canada. He was
the founder and director of the hospital’s Asthma Centre and Pediatric Consultation
Centre.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/sleep.html
This website has information about sleep for parents, kids and teens. It also has
information about emotions and behavior, growth and development, health lessons for
teachers. Sponsored by the Nemours Foundation. KidsHealth has been on the Web since
1995—and has been accessed by about half a billion visitors. On a typical weekday,
more than 500,000 visitors access KidsHealth’s reliable information. Physicians and
other health experts review all content before it is published on KidsHeatlh. All content
is re-reviewed on a regular basis (about every 1 to 3 years, or more frequently if needed).
The most recent review date and the name of the expert reviewer(s) are at the end of each
article.
http://www.naturalsleepmedicine.net/education_page.html
This website is sponsored by the Institute of Naturopathic Sleep Medicine and includes
information about children’s sleep, and a link to a newsletter.
http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/GD/Templates/Pages/Childrens/Neurosciences/Neur
oSciencesShortContent.aspx?page=5801
This website is provided by the Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and has sleep tips for
adolescents and school age children. The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s
Hospital is recognized as one of the nation’s ten largest free-standing pediatric research
centers.
http://www.eightstraight.com/physiology/37-physiology/67-childrenssleep.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=lifestyle&adgroup=child
&kw=child’s%20sleep
Information for parents of children of all ages with forums with sleep advice.
“EightStraight” is devoted to bringing tools and information needed to sleep smarter.
They feature a database of in-depth articles on every aspect of sleep and its relationship
to health and well-being, a resident sleep expert, and an online community for company
and advice.
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/how-much-sleep-do-children-need
The Web MD website blends award-winning expertise in medicine, journalism, health
communication and content creation to bring the best health information possible.
http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm
This site provides good information on the importance of sleep and the sleep
requirements for a variety of ages. Helpguide was created in 1999 by the Rotary Club of
Santa Monica with active participation by Rotarians Robert and Jeanne Segal following
the tragic suicide of their daughter Morgan. Helpguide’s mission is to empower
individuals to understand, prevent, and resolve health challenges.
Professional Articles:
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om/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=10066006&loginpage=login.asp&site=ehostlive
This article, “Sleep deprivation can look like ADHD,” by Jason Williams, was published
in the August 2003 issue of Psychology Today (Vol. 36, Issue 4, p. 23). It reports on the
results of a study on the role of sleep deprivation on attention-deficit-hyperactivity
disorder symptoms in children.
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om/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=19902524&loginpage=login.asp&site=ehostlive
This article (found in NEA Today of March 2006, Vol. 24, Issue 6, p. 11), presents the
results of a study on the effect of lack of sleep on educational performance of students
conducted by researchers from Brown University and Bradley Hospital in Rhode Island.
Fewer than 8 hours sleep leads to difficulty in recalling memory, learning new lessons
and paying attention. Researchers suggest that finding out how much sleep a student is
getting should be conside4red when evaluating children for attention disorders or
learning disabilities.
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com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=19098689&loginpage=login.asp&site=ehostlive
This article, “Elementary students’ sleep habits and teacher observations of sleep-related
problems,” by James McKenzie (Journal of School Health, Feb. 2005, Vol. 75, Issue 2, p.
50-56), suggests that sleep affects the health and well-being of children and plays a key
role in preventing disease and injury, stability of mood, and ability to learn. This study
surveyed 1999 fifth-grade students regarding their sleep habits using the Sleep SelfReport instrument, Morningness/Eveningness Scale, and additional demographic
questions. Students’ teachesr also were asked to evaluate their students’ behavior using
the Teacher’s Daytime Sleepiness Questionnaire. Results indicated many students
experienced problems with sleep-related behavior. However, correlating the Teacher’s
Daytime Sleepiness Questionnaire findings with the Sleep Self-Report instrument
findings produced a weak correlation coefficient, indicating that teachers may not be able
to accurately identify students with sleep problems.
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om/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=6604929&loginpage=login.asp&site=ehostlive
This article, “The Impact of sleep on learning and behavior in Adolescents,” by Georgios
Mitru, Daniel Millrood, and Jason H. L. Mateika (Teachers College Record, June 2002,
Vol. 104, Issue 4, p. 704-727) reports that many adolescents are experiencing a reduction
in sleep as a consequence of a variety of behavioral factors (e.g., academic workload,
social and employment opportunities), even though scientific evidence suggests that the
biological need for sleep increases during maturation. Consequently, the ability to
effectively interact with peers while learning and processing novel information may be
diminished in many sleep-deprived adolescents. Furthermore, sleep deprivation may
account for reductions in cognitive efficiency in many children and adolescents with
special education needs. In response to recognition of this potential problem by parents,
educators, and scientists, some school districts have implemented delayed bus schedules
and school start times to allow for increased sleep duration for high school students, in an
effort to increase academic performance and decrease behavioral problems. The longterm effects of this change are yet to be determined; however, preliminary studies suggest
that the short-term impact on learning and behavior has been beneficial. Thus, many
parents, teachers, and scientists are supporting further consideration of this information to
formulate policies that may maximize learning and developmental opportunities for
children. Although changing school start times may be an effective method to combat
sleep deprivation in most adolescents, some adolescents experience sleep deprivation and
consequent diminished daytime performance because of common underlying sleep
disorders (e.g., asthma or sleep apnea). In such cases, surgical, pharmaceutical, or
respiratory therapy, or a combination of the three, interventions are required to restore
normal sleep and daytime performance.