Sleep! The solution to student’s grades?

News Shopper:

Its every teenager’s (and also some adult’s) worst nightmare; the cackle of the alarm clock at the start of every morning when even the sun hasn’t risen up yet. You have no choice but to get up, get washed, get dressed and get on your way to school because lateness equals detention. But what can you do?

With more and more students dragging themselves into class every morning dreary eyed and dreading the rest of the day, perhaps it’s not just the student’s problem anymore but also the schools.

It’s a scientific fact that more time devoted to sleep is essential to teenager’s mental health whilst neglecting this issue could lead to depression, headaches and wait for it lack of concentration. In addition to this lack of sleep, or insomnia as it is medically referred to, is a whole other class of problems relating to obesity, diabetes and even heart disease. With 1 in 3 people suffering issues of lack of sleep every day isn’t it time that something was done about it?

Well perhaps the one thing all pupils crave most may be the answer to all their problems. Recent studies have shown that later starts for pupils allow them to be significantly better prepared and better equipped to solve all their daily problems. Even just 1 additional hour of sleep every night could lead to stunning advancements in concentration, enthusiasm and mental ability but also have an all-around benefit on their well-being and health.

These dramatic results have led to a number of schools around the country opening later in the mornings particularly for students in their mid-teens who are most notably affected by insomnia. Schools such as Hugh Christie Technology College in Tonbridge, Kent where for 3 days a week students can come in at 11:00 am whilst leaving later at 5:30 arguing that students brains are much better prepared to work later in the day and that this is very likely to improve exam results.

So could this late start scheme spread to schools throughout the borough? With the average time that students have to be in school being 8:20am and many students having to travel over 50 minutes to get to school it may not such be such a difficult problem to solve balancing both school and sleep together. Heather Winfield a student at Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School seems to think not, ‘People complain about lack of sleep all the time yet nobody does anything about it. If this change can solve the problem and improve exam results then what are we waiting for?’

However there are many people throughout the education system and elsewhere who don’t share the same enthusiasm and maybe revising the issue first before making any mistakes is the best way forward. Lorraine Walsh a teaching assistant at Kemnal Technology College would agree saying there are many other ways to help pupils instead of introducing this drastic new change. ‘Particularly in the coming months when it becomes darker earlier it’s much more dangerous for the younger pupils out on the roads if schools are forced to finish early, especially if students are let out at the same time as rush hour. It’s going to add up to a disaster!’ Mrs Walsh who is a mother of 4 firmly believes that it is the responsibility of the pupil to make sure they are getting enough sleep not the school and many other parents would certainly agree.

So perhaps late starts aren’t the answer to the problem of lack of sleep and maybe the good old rule of bedtime should be reinforced. Hopefully, that will remain an issue for another day.

 

George Wickenden