Sleep Deprivation - School

School

A National Sleep Foundation survey found that college/university-aged students get an average of 6.7 hours of sleep each night. Sleep deprivation is common in first year college students as they adjust to the stress and social activities of college life. A study performed by the Department of Psychology at the National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan concluded that freshmen received the shortest amount of sleep during the week. In 1997 the University of Minnesota did research that compared students who went to school at 7:15 am and those who went to school at 8:40 am. They found that students who went to school at 8:40 got higher grades and more sleep on weekday nights. One in four U.S. high school students admits to falling asleep in class at least once a week. It is known that during human adolescence, circadian rhythms and therefore sleep patterns typically undergo marked changes. Electroencephalogram (EEG) studies indicate a 50% reduction of deep (stage 4) sleep and a 75% reduction in the peak amplitude of delta waves during NREM sleep in adolescence. School schedules are often incompatible with a corresponding delay in sleep offset, leading to a less than optimal amount of sleep for the majority of adolescents.

Read more about this topic:  Sleep Deprivation

Famous quotes containing the word school:

    I’m not making light of prayers here, but of so-called school prayer, which bears as much resemblance to real spiritual experience as that freeze-dried astronaut food bears to a nice standing rib roast. From what I remember of praying in school, it was almost an insult to God, a rote exercise in moving your mouth while daydreaming or checking out the cutest boy in the seventh grade that was a far, far cry from soul-searching.
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)

    And so they have left us feeling tired and old.
    They never cared for school anyway.
    And they have left us with the things pinned on the bulletin board.
    And the night, the endless, muggy night that is invading our school.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    We’ll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there’s no laboring i’ the winter.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)