A Look Into the Effects of Not Getting Proper Rest
“Sleep is God, Go Worship” –Jim Butcher
I have a confession to make: I am a terrible sleeper. It is something that challenges me a great deal because my starting point with the teachers and leaders that I work with, is always get your sleep habits in order and you will be much better at this education business. Like a broken record, I tell them, “You can’t do good, if you don’t feel good.” To be the embodiment of this statement you need to be getting a good night’s sleep. It’s no wonder I feel like such a fraud.
Recently, when I realised that it was 11.30pm and I was watching repeat episodes of Love Island, I knew that the state of my sleep habits needed some serious attention. In the midst of the narcissistic festival that was occurring on screen, I made some mental notes about my sleep problems and referred to Circadian Neuroscientist, Russel Foster’s, ‘Little Book of Sleep,’ for some expert advice. Interestingly, as I turned my attention to my sleeping issues and away from the utter devastation of two-day romances gone wrong, what hit me right between the eyes is the impact that a lack of sleep not only has on adults, but children.
Our lives can be split up into three pretty equal parts: sleep, work and social or family time. Get that balance wrong and the ramifications to both your physical and mental health are quite frightening. While a great deal of research has been undertaken about sleep and its ability to help us conserve energy and restore our tired bodies after a day of work or play, the ability for sleep to aid brain processing and memory consolidation is the one that has the greatest impact on classrooms everywhere.
Sleep deprivation as a result of long work hours, marking and report writing, mountains of homework, computer games or social media to name a few, severely reduces the ability to learn new tasks and solve complex problems.
There is no doubt that this is worrying stuff but the symptoms of a lack of sleep that have the greatest impacts on classrooms is that tired students have trouble remembering, are more impulsive, display poor judgement and the ability to solve complex problems is reduced three-fold. This, coupled with a stressed teacher who is lacking sleep, is what you might call a ‘perfect storm.’ Schools can no longer afford to ignore the importance of sleep to both students and teachers and while it might be seen as just another layer of work, it doesn’t need to be.
“A lack of sleep also inhibits our ability to strengthen the connections that help us consolidate new skills.”
Teachers and school leaders are experts in education and should use the communication platforms that they utilise to show off their expertise and offer parents and students some education on the art of a good night’s sleep that should include:
- Get prepared for bed by dimming lights and if possible, turning off the TV in favour of a book.
- Turn off phones and all forms of social media at least an hour before bed.
- Write a to do list for tomorrow so it doesn’t keep you awake today.
- Go to bed at a consistent time and wake up at a consistent time.
- Make sure the bedroom is cool and as dark as possible.
- Fill your morning with light, open the curtains and welcome the day.
If you are still wondering why this sleep thing is so important, then in summary, consider this: Sleep increases concentration, attention, decision making, creativity, social skills and health. In addition, it decreases moodiness, stress, anger, impulsivity, drinking and smoking. That would seem like some good enough reasons for me. So go on, get busy sleeping and I will promise never to watch Love Island again…unless my wife is snoring again.
Sweet Dreams!
