Specialist speaks to students slacking on sleep
December 3, 2015
Doctor Judith Owens presented her research on sleep deprivation and its effects on students to the Northborough-Southborough community at Trottier Middle School on November 2.
Owens visited Trottier in response to the ongoing school start time debate to inform concerned community members about the importance of sleep. The presentation was part of a long term plan to find a solution to sleep deprivation, particularly at the high school level.
“After reviewing the data [about the effects of a later start time] and appreciating that any change in Algonquin could mean a change in the K-8 level, the decision was made to spend this year investing in education and investing in the greater community’s education on this issues connection to sleep in adolescents and gathering data from our K-12 community,” Superintendent Christine Johnson said prior to Owen’s presentation. “Our purpose this evening is to share the information and learn more about the issues.”
Owens, who is the Director of Sleep Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, urges the community to realize the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation and the importance of sleep in adolescents.
“Sleep is just as important to health, safety, performance, and function, in all of us, but particularly in young people, as getting good nutrition, healthy exercise, all the other things we talk to kids about in terms of health habits,” Owens said. “Sleep is absolutely essential, critical, to health, safety, productivity, and wellbeing. It’s not just the amount of sleep, it’s the quality and the timing of sleep that are all critical to health and wellbeing.”
Owens touched upon the serious effects sleep deprivation has on teens, including depression, slowed motor skills, increased risk taking, and heightened emotional responses. To show the direness of sleep deprivation, Owens compared the effects of sleep loss with the effects of drunkenness.
“The impairments associated with sleep loss are equal to or greater than the level of impairments experienced by individuals with a moderate level of intoxication,” Owens said. “As a parent, you would never allow your adolescent knowingly to get behind the wheel having consumed three or four beers, and yet they do that all the time when they are driving themselves to and from class.”
Owens urges students to get as much sleep as possible, whether it be by taking a nap of 30 minutes or less after school, getting to bed earlier, or limiting caffeine consumption and electronic use prior to bed.
“The only thing that replaces sleep is sleep: not resting our eyes, not caffeine, not any of the other things that we pretend are going to substitute for sleep,” Owens said.
From her studies, Owens noted that a later school start time produces beneficial outcomes for students and creates a stronger, healthier student population and educational environment.
“In the two studies we conducted in independent schools, a delay of 25 to 30 minutes resulted in, across the board, statistically significant improvements in every outcome variable we looked at,” Owens said.
Principal Tom Mead and Assistant Principal Paul DiDomenico were among those in attendance of the event.
“I can’t argue with her message, she’s provided a lot of data. The difficult thing is that… everybody wants to do what’s in the best interest of all students, but nobody wants elementary school kids waiting for a bus at six in the morning,” DiDomenico said.
Owens further expressed a call to action for the district.
“To do nothing is to do harm to your students,” Owens said. “Simply not making a change is going to perpetuate a situation which is not in your student’s best interest in terms of health and safety.”
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