It is very pleasant to see a child sleeping, but the did you know that kids who get to sleep late can benefit out of it by eliminating daytime sleepiness. The High school students who have late school start timings are prone to take the benefit of the extra sleep time till the late morning hours. These students hold low chances to sleep during the daytime according to a research abstract presented on 10th June at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).
Zaw W. Htwe, MD, of Norwalk Hospital’s Sleep Disorders Center in Norwalk, Conn., author of the study, examined 259 high school students who had finished the compressed School Sleep Habits Questionnaire. Before the impediment students had slept almost for 422 minutes (7.03 hours) every school night, with a mean bed-time of 10.52 p.m. and approximately woke-up at 6:12 a.m.
The results indicated that after a 40-minute late timing in the school commencement time from 7:35 a.m. to 8:15 a.m., students had slept considerably for more time on school nights. The complete sleep time on school night raised 33 minutes that was because of a late wake-up schedule. These alterations were stable in all age groups. The student’s bedtime on school nights was slightly later and during weekend night sleep the time span decreased somewhat. Most of the students said “no problem” with sleepiness after the schedule modifications.
“Following a 40-minute delay in start time, the students utilized 83 percent of the extra time for sleep. This increase in sleep time came as a result of being able to ‘sleep in’ to 6:53 a.m., with little delay in their reported school night bedtime. This study demonstrates that students given the opportunity to sleep longer, will, rather than extend their wake activities on school nights,” said Mary B. O’Malley, MD, PhD, co-author of the study
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It is advisable that adolescents get nine hours of nightly sleep. While Researchers comment that Sleep Restriction leads to higher intake of calories, a good night’s sleep has become a must for a healthy lifestyle. A proper night’s sleep not only benefits one with elimination of daytime sleepiness but also helps in reducing the amount of calorie intake.