Sleep Deprivation - School

School

A National Sleep Foundation survey found that college/university-aged students get an average of 6.7 hours of sleep each night. Sleep deprivation is common in first year college students as they adjust to the stress and social activities of college life. A study performed by the Department of Psychology at the National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan concluded that freshmen received the shortest amount of sleep during the week. In 1997 the University of Minnesota did research that compared students who went to school at 7:15 am and those who went to school at 8:40 am. They found that students who went to school at 8:40 got higher grades and more sleep on weekday nights. One in four U.S. high school students admits to falling asleep in class at least once a week. It is known that during human adolescence, circadian rhythms and therefore sleep patterns typically undergo marked changes. Electroencephalogram (EEG) studies indicate a 50% reduction of deep (stage 4) sleep and a 75% reduction in the peak amplitude of delta waves during NREM sleep in adolescence. School schedules are often incompatible with a corresponding delay in sleep offset, leading to a less than optimal amount of sleep for the majority of adolescents.

Read more about this topic:  Sleep Deprivation

Famous quotes containing the word school:

    At school boys become gluttons and slovens, and, instead of cultivating domestic affections, very early rush into the libertinism which destroys the constitution before it is formed; hardening the heart as it weakens the understanding.
    Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)

    The first rule of education for me was discipline. Discipline is the keynote to learning. Discipline has been the great factor in my life. I discipline myself to do everything—getting up in the morning, walking, dancing, exercise. If you won’t have discipline, you won’t have a nation. We can’t have permissiveness. When someone comes in and says, “Oh, your room is so quiet,” I know I’ve been successful.
    Rose Hoffman, U.S. public school third-grade teacher. As quoted in Working, book 8, by Studs Terkel (1973)

    And this school wasn’t keeping anymore,
    Unless for penitents who took their seat
    Upon its doorsteps as at mercy’s feet
    To make up for a lack of meditation.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)