Ever found yourself drifting off into sleep during class? Well recent studies have linked lack of sleep with things like moodiness, memory problems, anxiety, aggression and stress. So if you are one of the many people suffering from these symptoms I suggest you read on.
Ever hear of memory Consolidation theory? I doubt it, but it’s basically a theory suggesting that sleep processes and retains information that was learnt earlier in the day. An experiment was conducted in 2006 testing if sleep could improve learning. The results showed that a student deprived of sleep who had learnt a new skill had trouble remembering it three days later. So the next time you’re feeling sleepy in class just recount this letter to your teacher and hopefully you will be able to doze off into dreams of castles, princes and all things good.
The average person should be sleeping for seven to eight hours. Students have six hours from when they get home at approximately 4 and sleep time at 10. Within this short six hours they must shower, eat, do A LOT of homework, socialize, relax, do some out of school activities, prepare for the next day, do chores, read a bit of a book, maybe watch some television, look after younger siblings, attend to the needs of their pets and take a nap because they are already exhausted from school. When it’s put like this you can see that there is quite a bit to do but, by sleeping less than the required amount it is seen to increase moodiness, anxiety, aggression and stress. Just imagine staying up to finish your homework that was set by your maths teacher three weeks ago and waking up with only three hours of sleep to find you that you did your English homework instead. But being the good person you are you still go to school and your Maths teacher rambles on about being organized and how you’re a horrible student and you finally snap screaming that you have better things to do, which lands you lunch time detention. To stop these symptoms from happening sleeping is highly recommended. Though it may not completely stop them it will certainly help so that hopefully the scenario above doesn’t happen.
Teachers should let a student sleep while in class! Think about it if the student is truly sleepy it’s not like they are going to learn anything. There only thinking about sleeping after all but, they will also complain about how sleepy they are which in turn will distract other students making them feel the strong pull of sleep. Next thing you know everyone’s asleep just because you didn’t let one student sleep. So it’s better to send that student off to sleep, after all its one less student to worry about!
So next time you’re staying up late and fighting the sleepiness why not give in? After all sleep is a good thing. And the next time a student asks if they can sleep during class why not give in? After all it’s better not to have a sleeping pandemic sweep you class!
By Charita the sleep master
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