The number of sleeping hours for students
Sleep is an important part of life and vital for maintaining function and health. An adult needs 4 to 4 hours of sleep during the night with a minimum of intermittent periods of sleep to have proper functional capacity during the day. The body is affected by light and darkness, work, leisure, and other activities.
Sleep in the human body plays the role of car dynamo and makes us energetic. You’ve probably come across people who do not have the energy to do things in the morning, or depressed people who are not motivated to be active, are usually low in energy, and have difficulty sleeping, or in other words, are not well charged.
Sleep is a major part of a person’s life, so people’s concern about the type and timing of sleep is obvious. People’s sleep patterns are different, and since school hours bring about a wide range of changes in the lives of children and adolescents, their sleep patterns naturally need to be properly managed.
School for your children brings a lot of changes. From school clothes to equipment, new classes, and most importantly, proper bedtime, which potentially affects parents’ lifestyles. Interestingly, every year as children get older, they experience changes that make their annual schedule different from the last twelve months.
Sleep is one of the most important human needs for health
“Dr. Maria Melanders, a pulmonologist and pediatric sleep specialist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, says:
The sleep required by humans varies with age
According to Dr. Melanders, there are generally two types of sleep: rapid eye movement or REM sleep and non-REM sleep. He believes that depending on the age of the people, the amount of sleep they spend in these two stages will be different. He also believes that different stages of sleep have different functions that remain unknown.
He also stated that the existence of both types of sleep is necessary for optimal learning; But REM sleep is for cognitive functions, such as fixed memories, and for the growth and development of the central nervous system; But non-REM or non-REM sleep is more restorative. In other words, the second type of sleep helps us to wake up during the day and stay awake.
Unfortunately, this perspective often causes us to become overwhelmed when it’s time to start a project. For example, we struggle to fall asleep at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every day. We spend the night using our phones, laptop, TV, or tablet. It should also be noted that the light emitted from the screen causes the levels of the hormone melatonin in the brain to malfunction, and ultimately disturbs our sleep.
We said that people’s sleeping patterns should change according to their age. In the following, we intend to provide the best tips for the sleep pattern of children before and after school age.
Sleep pattern in preschool (3 to 5 years)
Sleep It is clear that preschoolers need longer sleep depending on their age range. According to a report from the National Sleep Institute, preschoolers need 10 to 13 hours of sleep a night.
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Children at this age may go to bed a little earlier because their nap time is very short, ” says Dr. Melanders.
What is the appropriate amount of bedtime for students?
But this is by no means a guarantee that children will fall asleep easily at this age. Young children often experience insomnia when their parents begin to experiment with sleep time constraints.
According to child sleep experts, young children may use excuses such as “I want a hug” or “I need a glass of water” to avoid going to bed.
Preschoolers need longer sleep depending on their age range
Sleep pattern in school children (6 to 13 years old)
The National Sleep Institute recommends that children at this age experience 9 to 11 hours of sleep every 24 hours. According to Dr. Melanders, most children at this age do the recommended amount of sleep at night.
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During this age, some children may struggle with nightmares,” says a pediatric sleep specialist. The basis of these problems is in the pre-school period and the wild perceptions of children at that age. Other problems, such as nightmares, can have a negative effect on school-age children.
What is the appropriate amount of bedtime for students?
Children and adolescents in this age group spend a lot of time sleeping in the slow-wave or deep sleep type (a non-REM type of sleep). According to a sleep specialist, because this type of sleep is restorative, school children are much more alert during the day. This means that if your child is in the third or fourth grade and sometimes falls asleep at school, it is a warning sign that he is not getting enough sleep.
In addition, Dr. Melanders added that getting enough sleep for children can affect all aspects of their daily lives. Decreased performance of children in case of lack of sleep does not only lead to school and also affects attention, concentration, decision-making power, and problem-solving. It is also important to note that a child’s lack of sleep can lead to mood swings and even hyperactivity.
If you want to control the amount of sleep of children and adolescents of this age, you need to make a regular and accurate sleep schedule that the time of sleep on normal days of the week is different from the weekend. Of course, a delay of 1 to 2 hours during a week is not a cause for concern. Getting enough sleep for children can affect all aspects of their daily lives.
Sleep pattern in adolescents (14 to 17 years)
Dr. Melenders estimated the recommended bedtime for teens at 8 to 10 hours a night. But unfortunately, it has been found that only one-third of all teenagers in the world get enough sleep.
Adolescents are chronically deprived of the amount of sleep they need during the week. There are many
reasons for insomnia and insomnia in adolescents at this age; They have many activities during the day, including after-school activities and homework that make it impossible for them to get a good night’s sleep. On the other hand, they have to get up much earlier to go to school.
Also at this age, parents have less control over their children’s sleep time, which in itself reduces this group’s sleep.
In addition, the biological clock of adolescents makes it difficult for them to fall asleep early. According to Dr. Melanders, the biological clock of adolescents naturally changes, making it impossible for them to sleep at 9 o’clock.
As this process continues, because bedtime is delayed, teens’ waking time is also delayed. For example, even if he goes to bed at 11 o’clock at night, he naturally wakes up between 7:00 and 9:00 in the morning, but in practice, he needs more time to go to school.
As a general conclusion, adolescents are chronically deprived of the amount of sleep they need during the week.
Most teens spend less time sleeping over the weekend. If, for example, a teenager who sleeps 7 hours on school nights experiences a sleep deficit of about 2 hours, and this deficit reaches about 10 hours during the week, which can not be compensated at the end of the week.
Since teens are always tired, it is not uncommon for them to get a few hours of sleep in the afternoon, which can make it harder to sleep at night and eventually lead to a defective sleep cycle.
Of course, it is not possible to talk about teenagers without mentioning the tools of the screen. Many teens sleep through the night with their electronic devices. Even when they wake up in the middle of the night, they subconsciously check their phones. This information was obtained from experiments on adolescents’ sleep.
In this regard, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents leave their children’s bedrooms free of any display devices.
In the end, what remains is the inevitability of low sleep among all sections of society. Lack of sleep occurs for various reasons, the most important of which are a lot of activities and of course electronic and communication tools. We hope you can design a good sleep pattern using the above.
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