Health Assignment Results

Last Thursday I taught a short lesson on sleep, technology and food intake.  I gave all my students the assignment to record how much sleep they get each night, how much technology they use each day, and everything they eat.  Today was the day they were to turn in their records.  Only a few students turned in their records, yet from their records, we can all learn something.

Here is a graph of their sleep amounts:

From this graph we are able to see that these students are usually not getting the recommended 10-11 hours of sleep; instead they are getting the amount recommended for adults.  However, with the weekends excepted, it does look like there are patterns in the amount of sleep they get during the week which is critical for learning, energy, and growth.

Most kids in fifth grade are trying to gain some independence and bedtime might be the first thing to suffer. I recently read a chapter in a book (NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children) titled, "The Lost Hour: Around the world, children get an hour less sleep than they did thirty years ago. The cost: IQ points, emotional well-being, ADHD, and obesity." I learned some valuable and interesting information about how important sleep is for kids, especially just before they begin growth spurts and the demands of junior high and high school.  If your child wants to exert his independence about bedtimes, at least talk about the pros and cons and make sure that if they aren't getting 10 hours of sleep at night that maybe they take a short half hour nap somewhere. They need the sleep to grow and to get ideas connecting in their brains that they learned at school.