Tag: students and sleep

Smart Devices Can Mess Up A Kid’s Sleep Big Time

Sleep is important for normal growth and development regardless of age. However, it is more important for kids to get enough sleep each night than adults as their bodies are growing. If you see infants sleeping most of the time and see rapid growth and development over the first year of their life, it is the same for toddler and young kids.

Unfortunately, there are more distractions now than the last time most adults were kids themselves. If play and a little television used to distract kids back in the days making them hate taking naps or sleeping early at night, smart gadgets are the latest craze these days. Most kids now have their own smartphones, iPad or tablet that they can use whenever they want. Parents are also mostly busy and unable to supervise what their kids watch or how often they stay glued to the screen.

Touchscreen devices like smartphones and tablets are now fixtures of many households, so it comes as little surprise to learn that young children who don’t work or go to school are among their most active users. In the first study of its kind, researchers have learned that infants and toddlers who spend more time on these devices sleep less at night. It’s a troubling finding, but the reasons for these sleep disruptions are still unclear.

Traditional screen time, like television and video games, has been linked to sleep problems in children, but less is known about portable touchscreens, such as smartphones and tablets. In the first study to investigate potential links between touchscreens and sleep in young children, a research team led by Tim Smith from Birkbeck University of London has found that the same sleep disruption effect applies to these modern devices. By surveying parents about their kids’ touchscreen use and sleep patterns, these researchers have found that every additional hour of tablet or smartphone use among children between the ages of six months and three years results in about 15 minutes less total sleep. These findings now appear in Scientific Advances.

(Via: https://gizmodo.com/kids-who-use-touchscreen-devices-sleep-less-at-night-1794270842)

Allowing young kids to have daily continuous access to smart gadgets is the norm these days. Parents indulge their kids with unlimited gadget use so the youngsters can pass the time without bothering their busy and often stressed out parents.

There’s been a sharp rise in the number of children admitted to hospital with sleep problems, and the North West has some of the worst numbers in the country.

Hospital attendance for sleeping disorders has tripled over last decade and it’s claimed there’re big gaps in support for parents across the North West.

(Via: http://www.itv.com/news/granada/update/2017-04-10/why-has-there-been-an-increase-in-children-with-sleep-problems/)

Children have a hard time drifting off to sleep at night on a regular bedtime schedule because it’s mainly their parent’s fault for being too lenient. Everyone suffers when they lack sleep and you wouldn’t want to compromise the health of young kids because lost sleep is lost sleep, period.

Ogunbosi told NAN on Thursday that children under the age of five were often admitted into the hospital for sleep disorders.

“The most common cause of their sleep problem is ‘sleep apnoea’, where breathing is interrupted during sleep.

“However, sometimes there is no obvious cause of a child’s sleep problem.

“Children and teenagers need at least nine hours of sleep per night. Sleep problems and lack of sleep can have negative effects on a child’s performance at school.

“It could also affect the child’s extracurricular activities and social relationships.”

According to the paediatrician, accidents and injuries, behavioural problems, mood swings, memory and learning problems, performance problems and slow reaction to issues are often attributed to sleep disorder.

(Via: https://lifestyle.thecable.ng/children-teenagers-doctor-sleep/)

The problem is that kids these days get to tinker with technology at a very young age, which should not be the case. Parents should also enforce a regular bedtime schedule for kids to follow at all cost. Smart gadget use should be limited and they shouldn’t be allowed to access all sites that they want. Kids need enough sleep to rest and recharge like what adults need or they may end up lacking the energy to go through their day and feel tired and sleepy at school that may eventually affect their grades.

There are times when children also suffer from sleep disorders like sleep apnea despite their young age. They can benefit from GMSS: https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/good-morning-snore-solution or the leader in the MAD field, the SnoreRX: https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx to help them sleep better. Conventional treatments like CPAP and surgery are often not ideal for younger children because of the discomfort and risk involved. What’s easier to do is to take that gadget away from your kid and let him/her experience life first-hand and not through games or videos they see on the web. With active play, they would likely end up feeling exhausted at the end of the day and won’t have a hard time falling asleep by themselves.

Back To School Sleep: What You Need to Know

studentIt’s almost that time of year again. Soon campuses across the country will be abuzz with new students and old students alike. For many, this is their first time on their own without parents to tell them what to do and when to do it. Many students relish the ability to throw a schedule out the window and taste that freedom that comes with being in charge of all your choices. While there is still some structure to their lives like when classes are held or when the meal hall is open, there are a lot of things that were once monitored that no longer seem important. Doing laundry, showering, and sleeping are three major tasks that fall to the wayside.

This can be a major problem.  Not just because there will be thousands of smelly kids trying to figure out how to write that final paper just like the professor wants but because a lack of proper sleep can be devastating to the mind and body:

This month, millions of teenagers across the country will make the transition from high school to college. And between living in a new environment and the new-found freedom to attend parties and other late-night activities, getting enough sleep can be a challenge, and even a health risk, experts say.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not getting enough sleep can even contribute to chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity and depression.

‘Regular sleep is essential for your physical and mental health,’ wrote Dr. Carmen Burrell, medical director of the West Virginia University Student Health Service, in an email to the Gazette-Mail. ‘The current recommendation is seven to nine hours of sleep a night, which is not achieved by a large percentage of the population.’

According to a 2009 study, 43.7 percent of people aged 18 to 25 surveyed reported unintentionally falling asleep during the day at least once during the previous month. About 5 percent of people the same age reported nodding off or falling asleep while driving.

Dr. Imran Khawaja, a professor of internal medicine at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, said a lack of sleep can cause people to have a lack of attention, poor motivation and memory that can negatively affect a student’s grades.

To get enough sleep, Khawaja recommends that students make a fixed sleep schedule for themselves and stick to it. They should set a fixed time to go to sleep and to wake up in the morning, he said.

Burrell agreed.

‘Good sleep hygiene can start with a simple nighttime routine to wind down,’ she wrote.

People should keep their cell phones, laptops and other electronics away from their bed when they’re trying to sleep. Looking at bright screens can keep people awake much the same way that bright light keeps a person awake in the day time, Khawaja said.

Via: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-health/20160808/sleep-essential-for-college-students-physical-mental-health#sthash.LPpEiWjF.dpuf

In order to keep performing at peak mental and physical health sleep cannot be ignored. The problem comes when you have millions of teenagers that have to learn how to manage their own schedules for the first time in their lives. It’s not an easy process and some schools will have workshops and clinics on time management. It’s very important that new students take advantage of this. When school is done and they’re out in the working world their poor sleep habits may be harder to change. If they can nip it in the bud now, they should be doing everything they can to manage this very real, almost grown up, problem.