A good day at school starts with a good night's sleep. A newspaper article that I read several weeks ago reported that children and adults all over America are sleep deprived. The article continued to say that sleep deprivation leads to decreased attentiveness, decreased short-term memory, inconsistent performance and delayed response time. It can also affect mood, growth, immunity and coordination.

Presuming that this information is accurate, it is possible that students who are experiencing learning problems may not be dealing with an ability issue; but, perhaps, simply just a lack of sleep.

Sleep helps us recover from work that our muscles and organs and brain have been doing all day long. While we sleep, our bodies are replenished with nutrients they need for the next's day's work. Our brains are able to organize information we processed while awake. Sleep forms memory and organizes learning. Our brain is capable of sorting and storing information and solving problems while we rest.

The amount of sleep children need changes as they grow. Although each child may be different, in general most infants need 14 to 20 hours, preschoolers need 10 to 13 hours, elementary school age children need 10 to 11 hours, and teens need 8 to 9 1/2 hours. After listening to a number of children complaining about being tired, I would venture to guess that we have a lot of students who do not get enough sleep each night.

The effects of missing sleep are cumulative in nature, so missing even one hour a night adds up to a whole night's sleep in a week's time. How close do students come to having the right amount of sleep each night? Figuring out a way to get the recommended amount of sleep will keep children on the road to health and happiness.

Thursday, October 16, 2008
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