For the Week of March 1st

ISATs and the Importance of Sleep

I am on the email list of Half Full: Science for Raising Healthy Kids written by Christine Carter, PhD. She offers practical advise. I found this piece especially pertinent since we want our students to do their best on the ISAT tests. This is copied with her permission.

Half Full: Is Sleep the Most Important Happiness Habit?


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Is Sleep the Most Important Happiness Habit?

Posted: 27 Jan 2010 05:02 PM PST

If I posted a video of my daughter when she is sleep-deprived and trying to finish her homework or clean her room—or do anything, really, that she doesn’t want to do—I would lose all credibility as a parenting expert. This is because there is a good chance you would all witness her shockingly bad behavior, from bratty-voice screaming to head-on-the-desk, teary, fist pounding protests.




We humans don’t really function all that well when we are seriously tired, and that is especially true for little humans whose brains are not yet fully developed. As Arianna Huffington writes in this post, sleep might just be the key to our happiness and peak performance.

Nothing could be more true for children.

Kids need a lot of sleep to be happy. Unfortunately, studies show that kids are getting significantly less sleep per night than they did in previous generations. This is of no small consequence.

Sleep deprivation—or just getting slightly less sleep than they need—affects kids’ functioning and well-being in a huge range of ways. Not getting enough sleep can make kids:

Less smart. In one study, researchers restricted the sleep of some students and extended the sleep of others for about 40 minutes over just three days. Kids who got less sleep showed worse performance in areas like learning, memory, and reaction times. How much worse? The difference between the two groups was “larger than or similar to the highly significant age differences between the fourth- and sixth-grade students” in the study. Losing two hours of sleep over three days set kids back two years.
Inattentive. Sleepiness makes it hard for kids to pay attention, whether to their school work or to their parents. The effects of not getting enough sleep is much more evident in younger children, who tend to be quite distractible when tired.
Fat. Sleep affects dozens of physiological and hormonal processes throughout our bodies, like how we store fat and burn calories. Kids who are “short sleepers” are more likely not just to be fat, but to actually be obese.
Less creative. Sleep helps kids with verbal flexibility so that their speech is more articulate and creative. Decreased sleep can make them less fluent, and it can impair their thinking in ways that make them less imaginative and less able to problem solve.
Moody and ill-behaved. I think this is obvious to every parent of every child who has ever missed a nap, but loads of good research backs this up: not getting enough sleep can make five year olds act like three year olds—miserable three year olds, to boot. Substance use, including using caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco, is greater in teens who sleep less, indicating that they are trying to cope with how they feel when tired.
Bad behavior often comes from the fact that sleepiness makes it hard for kids to control their impulses. Given my interest in Raising Happiness , I think this is the most important consequence that not getting my kids into bed on time can have. Why be awake if we are likely to be crabby and unhappy until we get more sleep?

In future posts, I’ll dig a little deeper into the sleep research in order to give parents some good guidelines about sleep and their children’s happiness. I’ll address questions such as: How much sleep do kids need at different ages? Does messing up weekend sleep matter—can we let our kids stay up late once or twice a week without suffering the consequences? Can students make up for lost sleep on the weekends? What does research show we can do to help our kids fall asleep faster and to sleep better?

Helping our kids get more sleep can have tremendous positive effects. Because of this, I have recently moved my kids’ bedtime to a shockingly-early 7:30 pm (they are 7 and 9 years old, and they catch the bus at 7:50 in the morning). This means that I am trading quality bonding time with my children for sleep. But, given the profound effects sleep has on their health and happiness, I don’t think I have a choice: ensuring that my kids get enough sleep is my responsibility as a parent.

© 2009 Christine Carter, Ph.D.


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References:
Cappuccio, FP, Taggart, FM, Kandala, NB, Currie A, Peile E, Stranges S, & Miller, MA. (2008). Meta-analysis of short sleep duration and obesity in children and adults. Sleep, 31(5), 619-626.

Carskadon, MA, Acebo, C, & Jenni, OG. (2004). Regulation of adolescent sleep: Implications for behavior. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1021, 276-291.

Curcio, G, Ferrara, M, & De Gennaro, L. (2006). Sleep loss, learning capacity and academic performance. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 10, 323–337.

Dahl, RE. (1996). The impact of inadequate sleep on children’s daytime cognitive function. Seminars in Pediatric Neurology, 3(1), 44-50.

Fallone, G, Acebo, C, Arnedt, JT, Seifer, R, & Carskadron, MA. (2001). Effects of acute sleep restriction on behavior, sustained attention, and response inhibition in children. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 93, 213-229.

Fredricksen, K, Rhodes, J, Reddy, R, & Way, N. (2004). Sleepless in Chicago: Tracking the effects of adolescent sleep loss during the middle school years. Child Development, 75(1), 84-95.

Iglowstein, I, Jenni, OG, Molinari, L, & Largo, RH. (2003). Sleep duration from infancy to adolescence: Reference values and generational trends. Pediatrics, 111, 302-307.

Sadeh, A, Gruber, R, & Raviv, A. (2003). The effects of sleep restriction and extension on school-age children: What a difference an hour makes. Child Development, 74(2), 444-455.

Smaldone, A, Honig, JC, & Byrne, MW. (2007). Sleepless in America: Inadequate sleep and relationships to health and well-being of our nation’s children. Pediatrics, 119, S29-S37.

Stein, MA, Mendelsohn, J, Obermeyer, WH, Amromin, J, & Benca, R. (2001). Sleep and behavior problems in school-aged children. Pediatrics, 107(4), 1-9.

For the Week of February 22nd

Character Counts Talent Show

If your student is working on an instrumental or voice piece, a dance or a dramatic reading and has it ready to perform please consider signing them up for the talent show. Although we cannot take everyone, we will use those who sign up to draw from when selecting who should perform. Please remember to fill in all of the lines on the form. I have already had to ask a couple of students to go back and complete their forms. If you want another form, look on the Prairieview website. It is posted.

Earth Day T-Shirts

Prairieview wants to create an awareness of the importance of using our resources responsibly and taking good care of the world in which we live. We are selling t-shirts to help heighten awareness. Check out the Prairieview website for details.

Spring All-School Reading Incentive Program

Prairieview is joining together with Parents magazine and the International Reading Association to promote reading. Details will be coming home with your child soon. Please watch for the flyer and join the fun!

For the Week of February 15th

Family Book Night

I want to thank all of you who took the time out of your busy schedules to join us for family book night. We had a lot of fun and got acquainted with some books we might want to read as families. The comments were insightful - The thing I enjoyed most about Family Book Night was "reading with Mom and Dad." The thing I enjoyed most about Family Book Night was "spending time with my daughter - we love reading." The thing I enjoyed most about Family Book Night was "spending time with our family. The selection of books was great!" Under possible improvements the number one improvement relayed was that they wanted more time to read.

The best part of the evening to me was seeing the interaction between grandparents, parents and children enjoying books together.

I also want to give a big thank you to Mrs. Beseth, Mrs. Klacza, Mrs. Bouton and Mrs. Walsh-Rock who worked with me as a team to make Family Book Night happen. It was Mrs. Walsh-Rock's creativity that made the passport stations fun.

For the Week of February 8th

Encourage Your Child to Read Along

I have been trying to encourage my students to read along when another person is reading out loud. Some students do this naturally and always follow along. Others, however, only read when it is their turn to read out loud. This means that they are getting 1/5 or 1/6th of the practice that a student is getting who reads along silently with the reader. I would appreciate any words of encouragement you could give your child in this regard.

Character Counts - Trustworthiness

During February we are working on the Character Counts pillar of trustworthiness. Being trustworthy is so important to good character. Employers are always seeking employees that they can trust to do a good job. Committees of all kinds want members they can trust to complete the tasks for which they have volunteered. When you see something on the news about a person who has been trustworthy or not so trustworthy, take a moment for a discussion with your child about that person.

Family Book Night

We are looking forward to seeing all of you who registered for Family Book Night this coming Thursday, February 11th from 6:30-8:00. We have a fun evening planned.