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Sleeping In: The Skinny on SleepBy KRISTEN STERNBERG | NIE Educational Consultant National studies indicating that high school students do better in the classroom if they get to sleep later in the morning have prompted members of the Flagler County School Board to re-think some school schedules. Read the article, if you haven't already done so, by clicking on the link above. You will find several arguments that support adjusting the school schedule to a later starting time. Many studies show that the more sleep students get, the more their performance improves. Students who get up to an additional hour of sleep per night perform better in class, endure fewer mood swings and miss school less frequently than those who do not get extra sleep. What is sleep, and why is it so important to our daily lives? Scientists are rapidly gaining a better understanding of the functions of sleep. They have found that throughout life, dreams play an important role in learning. During sleep, the brain goes through stages that range from light to very deep. These stages are repeated in cycles through the night. Dreams occur only during the deepest stage, called the REM stage. REM is short for "rapid eye movement," because that's what happens during this stage. Approximately 20% of the time you sleep is spent dreaming. Through dreaming, you process events to put order into your world. Studies performed using rats found that they busily work the same lab mazes in their dreams that they negotiate during the day. Dreams, human or animal, are complex events that provide a basis for learning and memorization. Dreams help convert memory from short-term to long-term. This means that most facts you've just learned or events you've recently experienced are not properly put away for later recall until you've had a chance to "sleep on it." A real-world example of this is staying up all night to cram for a test, as many students find themselves doing. In reality, all-night cramming may not be entirely wasted, but without time asleep to allow the brain to process newly learned information, most of it will be forgotten in a couple of days or so. Did you know that teenagers and pre-teens need more sleep than most other age groups? Between the ages of nine and 14, you probably need to sleep about nine or 10 hours a day. Older adults, on the other hand, may require much less. Over your lifetime, you will probably average about eight hours of sleep out of each 24-hour period—that's 1/3 of the time! Remember "Spring ahead, fall back," the saying that tells you it's time to either set your clock one hour ahead (spring) or one hour back (fall or autumn)? Daylight Savings Time begins the first weekend in April. "Spring ahead" means you "lose" an hour, because you set your clocks one hour ahead in the spring. Check out this News-Journal article for an interesting perspective on the practice of changing our clocks. In general, humans have built-in timers, or internal clocks. You may not know precisely what time it is, but your body has settled into a kind of rhythm (called a circadian rhythm). Each complete cycle is about 24 hours, on average, because it's based upon the length of our day/night cycle on Earth. Living in space seems to affect sleep. Astronauts who spent several months aboard the International Space Station experienced dramatic changes in their circadian rhythms. Studies show that while on Mir they lost sleep, and slept less soundly, due to the lack of gravity as well as to the difference in the length of day and night. After all, Mir residents are treated to 15 sunrises and 15 sunsets per day! That might make it seem like each day is only 45 minutes long! How do you think your sleeping pattern might change aboard the Space Station? By the way: While many administrators, teachers and students would probably appreciate a later school starting time, other factors—the possible disruption of school sports programs, additional busing expenses and space considerations such as overlapping schedules, not to mention the pressure of tradition and other schedules of society, have to be weighed carefully in such a decision. What arguments can you think of that would not support the schedule change that Flagler County School officials are considering? Can you find more arguments that do support the change? Try these interesting activities using The Daytona Beach News-Journal1. Use The News-Journal to find an article or advertisement or a picture, cartoon or other item that reminds you of a dream you had while asleep—or maybe simply daydreaming. Use the item as a springboard to describe your dream in words and pictures. Repeat the exercise periodically and keep your work in a scrapbook to share with others. (Sunshine State Standards LA.A.2.2.5, LA.B.2.2.6, VA.A.1.2.1, VA.B.1.2.1, VA.B.1.2.2, VA.B.1.2.4) 2. Over a period of several days, read the advice columns published in The News-Journal. Imagine that you are an advice columnist and that you have received a letter asking for your opinion about a sleeping problem. Write a response to the fictional request. Continue to check the newspaper columns to see if similar items are published. (Sunshine State Standards LA.B.1.2.1, LA.B.2.2.1, LA.B.2.2.3, LA.B.2.2.6) 3. Turn to The News-Journal's Weather page to find and record the sunrise and sunset times for one week. Also keep track of what time you went to bed (or fell asleep) and the time you awoke for each of those days. Compute the difference between each set of figures—for example, figure the difference between sunset and the time you went to bed, or sunrise and the time you got up. Design a chart showing your findings. Poll friends or family members about their sleeping habits. (Sunshine State Standards LA.C.3.2.3, MA.A.3.2.2, MA.A.3.2.3, MA.B.1.2.2, MA.E.1.2.1) 4. Using The News-Journal, find listings for three different movies you might enjoy seeing. For each, determine the latest show time. Calculate the time each film is scheduled to end. Then, add the amount of time you would need to travel home and get ready for bed. Given the time you need to wake up the following morning, are there about 9-10 hours left for a good night's rest? (Sunshine State Standards MA.A.3.2.2, MA.A.3.2.3, MA.A.4.2.1, MA.B.1.2.1, MA.B.1.2.2) 5. Besides sleeping, how do you use your time? Find and clip pictures and words or phrases that describe parts of your daily routine (for example, brushing your teeth, eating a meal, traveling to and from school, reading, doing chores, watching TV, and so on). Estimate the average amount of time you spend on each task. Over the coming weeks, check to see how accurate your estimates were. Use your clippings to create an interesting collage about your daily life. Share your work with friends or family. (Sunshine State Standards LA.A.2.2.5, LA.A.2.2.8, MA.A.4.2.1, MA.B.2.2.2, MA.B.3.2.1, MA.D.1.2.1) A copy of Florida's Sunshine State Standards can be found at intech2000.miamisci.org. Check out these links to learn moreAt the Neuroscience for Kids site you can learn more about how and why we sleep. There's also lots of other stuff about the brain. www.univ.trieste.it We spend about one third of our life sleeping. So, why not begin a journey into the world of sleep? Discover the complexity and importance of your daily biological ritual. library.thinkquest.org This site advertises "Everything you wanted to know about sleep but were too tired to ask." www.sleepnet.com/ At The Yuckiest Site on the Internet, in the section titled "Brain Basics," click on "The Brain During Sleep." You'll find answers to questions like "How many hours do you sleep during the year?" Then, back at "Brain Basics," choose "How Much Do Animals Sleep?" Can you find out what is unique about the way dolphins sleep? Which animal needs the least amount of sleep? yucky.kids.discovery.com/ Up to half of all people may experience sleep disorders. Common disorders range from insomnia (inability to sleep), to narcolepsy (uncontrollable episodes of sudden sleepiness) to sleep apnea (obstruction of breathing during sleep). You can find information on all kinds of sleep disorders at the National Sleep Foundation web site. The site provides information in English and Spanish. www.sleepfoundation.org/ The Newspaper Association of America's web site contains links to many newspapers in the U.S. and around the world, which may contain additional news stories about this topic. To access the newspapers at the site, select a state. Click on the "Internationals" button to view choices from other countries. The Daytona Beach News-Journal NIE Program, published April 1, 2002 |
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