Monday 5 January 2009

Teens Not Sleeping Enough

Their growth and ability to learn will be affected, say sleep specialists

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Guanyu said...

Teens Not Sleeping Enough

Their growth and ability to learn will be affected, say sleep specialists

By Salma Khalik
5 January 2009

More than three-quarters of the teenagers here are compromising their health and performance in school by not getting enough sleep.

A study of students in six schools last year found that four in five of them were not getting the recommended eight to nine hours of sleep on school nights; half of those in the study were getting only five to six hours.

Dr. Lim Li Ling, director of Singapore General Hospital’s Sleep Disorder Unit, said: ‘When children don’t get enough sleep, the consequences are significant. It affects their learning and growth.’

She noted that many teens in sleep deficit are high-achievers who think sleep is an option they can do without.

‘Some proudly let me know that they sleep only four hours a night. It’s not something they should feel proud about. It affects their brain potential - how much they can learn and consolidate.’

Dr. Lim, a neurologist by training before specialising in sleep problems, said a lack of sleep also dampens creativity, and may cause emotional problems or even stunt their growth in height.

Few teens who go through school with just six hours of sleep a night are happy children.

A study in the United States found that even top students do better with sufficient sleep: Tracking a group of students two years before and three years after school hours were changed to allow them more time in bed, the study found a significant improvement in their grades.

Even their levels of mischief fell.

Dr. Lim said the majority of teenagers here do not get enough sleep because, on top of their school work, they spend time ‘doing what teens like to do’, such as chatting online.

Physically, they remain alert till late at night, which enables them to do this, even though they really need to hit the sack to get the rest their bodies need for another school day.

The heavy load of school and co-curricular activities also takes its toll on sleep.

Secondary 2 student Denise Tan, who wakes up at 5.50am is a typical teenager who is ‘sometimes sleepy at school’.

But her schedule seems beyond her control: As a school swimmer, she trains thrice a week and does not get home till 6pm on those days.

Still, she gets to bed only between 10pm and 11pm, after homework and watching about an hour of television - and this teenager does not even play computer games or chat online on school days, unlike some of her classmates at St Joseph’s Convent.

Most teenagers try to make up by sleeping in on weekends. Denise, for example, is in bed until almost noon on Saturdays. She has to be up by 8am on Sundays to go to church with her family.

Dr. Lim said make-up sleep may work in the short term, but is not good for the body.

School commitments aside, some young ones do not get enough sleep because of medical problems.

Nur Natasha Abdul Rahman, nine, wakes up tired as she suffers from obstructive sleep apnoea. This causes her to wake up many times a night, preventing restful sleep. She either falls asleep in class or learns very little on the days she is awake. She failed her Primary 3 exams last year. Treated at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital last year, she now gets a good night’s sleep, and has been allowed by her school to attend Primary 4.

Sleep apnoea affects between 1 and 3 per cent of children here.