Sleep Deprived Teens Dozing Off At School
FROM: ASSOCIATED PRESS / NEWSVINE
America is raising a nation of sleep-deprived kids, with only 20 percent getting the recommended nine hours of shuteye on school nights and more than one in four reporting dozing off in class.
Many are arriving late to school because of oversleeping and others are driving drowsy, according to a poll released Tuesday by the National Sleep Foundation.
"In the competition between the natural tendency to stay up late and early school start times, a teen's sleep is what loses out," said Jodi A. Mindell of St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
"Sending students to school without enough sleep is like sending them to school without breakfast. Sleep serves not only a restorative function for adolescents' bodies and brains, but it is also a key time when they process what they've learned during the day." said Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
School-age children and teenagers should get at least nine hours of sleep a day, according to the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Institutes of Health.
The poll found that sixth-graders were sleeping an average of 8.4 hours on school nights and 12th-graders just 6.9 hours.
Without enough sleep, a person has trouble focusing and responding quickly, according to NIH. The agency said there is growing evidence linking a chronic lack of sleep with an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and infections.
The poll, taken in November, interviewed 1,602 adult caregivers and their children age 11 to 17. It had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
>>FULL ARTICLE HERE
America is raising a nation of sleep-deprived kids, with only 20 percent getting the recommended nine hours of shuteye on school nights and more than one in four reporting dozing off in class.Many are arriving late to school because of oversleeping and others are driving drowsy, according to a poll released Tuesday by the National Sleep Foundation.
"In the competition between the natural tendency to stay up late and early school start times, a teen's sleep is what loses out," said Jodi A. Mindell of St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
"Sending students to school without enough sleep is like sending them to school without breakfast. Sleep serves not only a restorative function for adolescents' bodies and brains, but it is also a key time when they process what they've learned during the day." said Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
School-age children and teenagers should get at least nine hours of sleep a day, according to the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Institutes of Health.
The poll found that sixth-graders were sleeping an average of 8.4 hours on school nights and 12th-graders just 6.9 hours.
Without enough sleep, a person has trouble focusing and responding quickly, according to NIH. The agency said there is growing evidence linking a chronic lack of sleep with an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and infections.
The poll, taken in November, interviewed 1,602 adult caregivers and their children age 11 to 17. It had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
>>FULL ARTICLE HERE
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