Let Your Kids Sleep, More Rested Kids Means More Well Behaved Students...and Happy Teachers!

Every child has a different tolerance for optimal performance and attention in school.  Every teacher wants to capitalize on a child's best learning strengths so that he or she can not only succeed but excel in his/her classroom.  In "Teacher Ratings" by Mary Carskadon, volunteers participated in a home-based study that lasted 3-weeks.  Conditions were modified from self-selected baseline, optimized, and finally restricted sleep.  The restricted schedule was characterized by substantial decreases in sleep opportunities for all participants.  The optimized schedule was designed to offer optimal estimated sleep needs for school-aged juveniles, per participant age parameters.  Participants attended school as usual during the study, and ratings were obtained from educators at the end of every week, scheduled to avoid holidays.  Lastly, participant students had to be medically healthy and academically average or above average to participate.

Ratings were given based on a comprehensive 26 item teacher questionnaire, divided into 4 focus areas: academic trouble, hyperactive-impulsive behavior, internalizing symptoms (i.e. sadness, anxiety), and oppositional-aggressive behavior.  Only 6 of 84 total children's data sets has to be excluded from review because 1 or 2 experimental conditions were not met.  Within the available data, results showed significantly more teacher-reported academic problems for the restricted sleep condition, relative to both baseline and optimized conditions, an impressive finding.  Attention problems also were noted to be higher in the restricted sleep condition, even though the article conceded that values only approached significance, but did not reach it.  No significant differences in sleepiness ratings were observed across conditions.  Teachers generally reported increases in academic difficulty as well as in attention maintenance for restricted sleep conditions.

Given this information, I think the article addressed the academic implications of poor sleep health, but could have also delved farther into studying potential solutions for the 21st-century technology-saturated typical child, with the exception of course of those who cannot afford such luxuries or live a lifestyle free of it.  I would like to see more research performed that focuses on bedtime habits maybe as they affect sleep efficiency more so than being focused sleep-deprivation and its effects on academic performance.

For example, I would love to lead a study in rural Indiana, "Amish country," where my aunt and uncle own a lake house, focused on the sleep habits of the Amish compared to "regular" families that live in the area.  Since both groups are exposed to the same geographical environment, experimental controls would be fairly easy to manipulate.  They are not exposed to the same kinds of distractions to sleeping well that most of us are.  They do not have phones or other devices, internet, and many of them still do not have electricity, or cars for that matter.  I wonder if there is a word in their vocabulary for attention-deficit problems like ADHD?  Maybe not, because maybe there is no need to discuss this issue.  I wonder what ratings schoolhouse teachers would give their students in baseline, optimized, and restricted conditions in the Amish community.  I have been working to move back my bedtime recently, making a more routine schedule.  Some days I have been more successful than others but I know that I should really take a cue or two from the Amish -- although I cannot see myself getting up at the crack of dawn everyday...

This week, I commented on Madison and Brandee's blogs.