In most of the world school has been in session for a few months now, with many students starting to eye-up the upcoming holiday breaks. One reason for this is tiredness. The extent of how tired many students are comes via a survey from Sleep Cycle, who produce an app to help people to monitor the quality of the sleep they are receiving. Multiple studies have shown that present day high school students do not receive an optimal amount of sleep.
The new survey has found that children are seldom getting the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep each night. Nearly half (46 percent) of parents have reported that their children get 7 hours or less of sleep each night. One factor influencing this is homework. The survey found that the vast majority (88 percent) of teens have reported how they regularly need to stay up late to finish school projects. Here some 59 percent state they need to have these late night cramming sessions on a weekly or daily basis.
The survey was conducted of over 1,000 U.S. adults and teens, with interviewed conducted by Propeller Research on behalf of Sleep Cycle, and provided to Digital Journal. The questionnaires took place in September 2018, and the results have not been published elsewhere. The headline finding is that homework keeps students up too late. Coupled with early school start times leads to many students falling asleep in class.
Without sufficient sleep, parents report that their children:
Are moody — 64 percent,
Are grumpy and disagreeable — 61 percent,
Get into more trouble at school — 28 percent,
Make worse life choices — 20 percent.
A factor that both parents and teens report as not helping the situation is the school start time. Here 52 percent of parents and 61 percent of teens are of the view that school starts too early. The students report that their school work suffers because of the early start time and that early school start times inhibit them from being productive later in the day. Conversely a alter start time as seen as something that would lead to more productive class work.
According to the National Sleep Foundation: “When schools shift their schedules, teens benefit. For example, seven high schools in Minneapolis moved their start times from 7:25 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and tested the outcomes for their students. As a result of the change, the teens got five or more extra hours of sleep per week, and attendance and enrollment rates went up, as did alertness. Meanwhile, student-reported depression went down.”
Sleep Cycle, along with many parents and teens, is pushing for a change to schooling policy.
