Somebody got paid for this research

[RonJonSurfer]

Not a news story, but I had to post this. Did it really take a scientist to tell us that kids that get more sleep do better in school ...duh!!!'

somebody thought it was a good idea to fund this study and somebody thought they were performing vital research. What next?? Turtleneck sweaters contibute to neck warmth??

Scientists: Sleepy Students Perform Worse By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

WASHINGTON - Staying up an hour or two past bedtime makes it far harder for kids to learn, say scientists who deprived youngsters of sleep and tested whether their teachers could tell the difference. They could.

If parents want their children to thrive academically, "Getting them to sleep on time is as important as getting them to school on time," said psychologist Gahan Fallone, who conducted the research at Brown Medical School.

The study, unveiled Thursday at an American Medical Association science writers meeting, was conducted on healthy children who had no evidence of sleep- or learning-related disorders.

Difficulty paying attention was among the problems the sleepy youngsters faced — raising the question of whether sleep deprivation could prove even worse for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

Fallone now is studying that question, and suspects that sleep problems "could hit children with ADHD as a double whammy."

Sleep experts have long warned that Americans of all ages don't get enough shuteye. Sleep is important for health, bringing a range of benefits that, as Shakespeare put it, "knits up the raveled sleave of care." Not getting enough is linked to a host of problems, from car crashes as drivers doze off to crippled memory and inhibited creativity.

But exactly how much sleep correlates with school performance is hard to prove.

So Brown researchers set out to test whether teachers could detect problems with attention and learning when children stayed up late — even if the teachers had no idea how much sleep their students actually got.

They recruited 74 6- to 12-year-olds from Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts for the three-week study.

For one week, the youngsters went to bed and woke up at their usual times. They already were fairly good sleepers, getting nine to 9.5 hours of sleep a night.

Another week, they were assigned to spend no fewer than 10 hours in bed a night. And another week, they were kept up later than usual: First- and second-graders were in bed no more than eight hours and the older children no more than 6.5 hours.

In addition to parents' reports, the youngsters wore motion-detecting wrist monitors to ensure compliance.

Teachers weren't told how much the children slept or which week they stayed up late, but rated the students on a variety of performance measures each week.

The teachers reported significantly more academic problems during the week of sleep deprivation, the study, which will be published in the journal Sleep in December, concluded.

Students who got eight hours of sleep or less a night were more forgetful, had the most trouble learning new lessons, and had the most problems paying attention, reported Fallone, now at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Mo.

Sleep has long been a concern of educators.

Consider: Potter-Burns Elementary School in Pawtucket, R.I., sends notes to parents reminding them to make sure students get enough sleep prior to the school's yearly achievement testing. Principal John Haidemenos considers it important enough to include in the school's monthly newsletters, too.

"Definitely there is an impact on students' performance if they come to school tired," he said.

But the findings may change physician practice, said Dr. Regina Benjamin, a family physician in Bayou La Batre, Ala., who reviewed the data at the Thursday's AMA meeting.

"I don't ask about sleep" when evaluating academically struggling students, she noted. "I'm going to start."

So how much sleep do kids need? Recommended amounts range from about 10 to 11 hours a night for young elementary students to 8.5 hours for teens.

Fallone insists that his own second-grader get 10 hours a night, even when it meant dropping soccer the season that practice didn't start until 7:30 — too late for her to fit in dinner and time to wind down before she needed to be snoozing.

"It's tough," he acknowledged. But "parents must believe in the importance of sleep."

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

___

Associated Press writer Juan-Carlos Rodriguez contributed to this report.

[Batman]

This actually isn't true. I tried sleeping during class last semester, and my grades suffered considerably.

[RonJonSurfer]

You must not have been part of the study.

[Kevin]

One thing that really threw me when I taught in a Japanese high school was that is was actually permissable to put one's head down and sleep , without any reprocussions from the teachers . Culturally , I found this behavior disrespectful and lazy , and would often give the kids a light 'finger jolt ' in the ribs, or the like when they would do so . This resulted in other teachers saying I was being 'too heavy ' with them , and due to their homework loads and club activities , often got only 4-5 hours a night ... and their sleeping was quite natural and not to be taken personally . I found this all quite bizarre ...

[edna]

Oh, it is... I fell asleep twice in high school (due to doing other things, more important of course, during the whole night) and I was inmediately sent home...with a warning, of course...

[invisible_r]

i got told off for sleeping in class too, even when it wasn;t my fault - was taking meningitis drugs as a pre-caution and a side-affect was sleepiness.

i knew a girl in uni who always sat in the front and always fell asleep! she even fell asleep once when meeting a tutor in a small , i.e. 3 person, group! i was surprised no one said anything

[Kevin]

Is it completely 'not your fault' , invisible , if you are taking drugs with a known side-effect , and you hadn't informed the teacher ?

[invisible_r]

it was basically the whole school taking them as it is traditional, before the start of school, to go to this island for the weekend. someone had a party there, and some kid got menigitis and started thowing up everywhere, so everyone got really paranoid and most of us started taking madication. half of us were on the one i took, the other half on one that causes your urine to turn red (the boys seemed to f ind that very disturbing!)

[edna]

I sleep very little and never take naps but many years ago I was falling asleep for hours, anywhere, at any time... I had to make tests and seems I had very little levels of folic acid... that was funny, I didn´t even knew that could cause such a strange trouble.

[invisible_r]

yeah, i have heard that before, i think anaemia can have that effect too. I always made fun of my friend who used to fall alseep while watching a movie/tv. now i do that too, to the extent that i once fell asleep in the cinema! how embarassing! i blame the anaemia

[Kevin]

it was basically the whole school taking them as it is traditional, before the start of school, to go to this island for the weekend. someone had a party there, and some kid got menigitis and started thowing up everywhere, so everyone got really paranoid and most of us started taking madication. half of us were on the one i took, the other half on one that causes your urine to turn red (the boys seemed to f ind that very disturbing!)

What KIND of island is this ? Sounds like something from from 'Survivor ' -- for real ! Or the ISland of Meninigitious ? Did you see any half-human , half-animals running around ?

[invisible_r]

lol, no! it's a small island that is really close to athens, and in mid-september, which coincides with the beginning of school, they have celebrations regarding the revolution in 1821 (i.e. when the greeks rebelled against the turks). no one really cares about the celebrations to be honest, as it is more of a social event, and everyone from my school and few other schools goes there for the weekend.

[Kevin]

I hope you didn't fly Olympic ,; that's one scary and old airline that needs some serious updating ! I've never been afraid on a plane , but the crossing from Iraklion to Athens made one consider praying ... the guy beside me ( a Cretan ) held and quietly chanted with his beads the whole way !

[invisible_r]

no, it's very close, you take a hydrofoil, or "flying dolphin" as we call it. Olympic isn't that bad! the small domestic flights sometimes get crappy planes, but the flight to london is so much better with Olympic, the seats are way bigger than BA, and the food is so much better!

[Kevin]

Indeed , The Batman must be considered a ' control ' ...