Saudi Gazette After a long three-month break, students are back to their classrooms, half asleep, furiously rubbing their eyes and trying their best to stay awake. Staying up until dawn and waking up late afternoon was the norm during the summer break. Childrens' sleeping habits had disrupted to such a large extent that children are now finding it extremely difficult to fall asleep at night. “The first few days of school after the break are the toughest,” said Muhammad Al-Harthy, a student who is using this week to gradually readjust his body to the normal school routine. “I stopped taking afternoon naps and each night I go to bed half an hour earlier so that I can slowly get used to sleeping at 10 p.m.,” he added. Sleeping late is an unhealthy habit and has several negative effects on our bodies. Staying awake until after midnight causes the body to release the stress hormone, cortisol, in the bloodstream. Cortisol increases blood pressure, weakens the immune system, increases inflammation, and slows down growth, and regeneration of new cells. No amount of sleep during the day can restore the body's energy as well as sleeping at night. The impact is more sharply felt on children's bodies and minds. Aida Hamza Al-Madani, a primary grade supervisor at Al-Ibdaa Girls' School in Jeddah gave an insight of the problems that could occur due to lack of sleep. “Girls who are sleep deprived have poor concentration and memory recall,” she told Saudi Gazette. “We even had one or two incidents of a student falling asleep in class. Staying up late means waking up in a rush to get to school on time; leaving no room for a proper breakfast and mental and emotional preparation for school. Clearly, the students who sleep well and eat a healthy breakfast are more alert and active and participate more in classroom discussions,” she added. Schools in the Kingdom are urging parents to help their kids get in bed early so that they get sufficient sleep. “I understand that all children have the desire to stay up late and they make up all sorts of excuses to delay going to bed, like being hungry or thirsty or forgetting to tell an important story. However, parents should exercise more control over their children's sleeping habits, said Yusra Naja, an administrator at Dar Jana International School. Yusra believes that the negative effects of sleeping late at night are not just limited to fatigue and dullness. She explains, “Science has shown that sleep at night restores and heals the brain and body. Our students who miss out on sleep at night are less alert, unproductive, and lazy. Lack of sleep could even effect the child's behavior and make him/her more aggressive and more prone to getting into fights. Morning is the best time for the brain to concentrate and understand new material. When children come to school in the morning feeling sleepy, they will not be able to take full advantage of this golden time.” Children must be given proper nutrition and in order to help them get healthy and sound sleep, parents must avoid their intake of caffeine after 4 p.m., since caffeine is a stimulant. Parents must give their kids a snack before bedtime that contains tryptophan, an amino acid that induces sleep and reduces anxiety and tension. Foods such as cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, fish, turkey, bananas, dates, and peanuts contain tryptophan. One parent offered a useful tip that worked for him and helped him get the young ones dozing off right after Al-Ishaa prayers. Adnan Al-Malki shared his secret and said, “During the first week of school, there is not much homework, so I take my children to a park right before sunset. They play, run, swing, slide and exercise for an hour to release all their physical energy. By the time we get back home they have their dinner, and then are too tired to even argue about going to bed. This trick will work in the beginning, but soon enough, their bodies will be in sync with sleeping early and waking up early.” Meanwhile, teachers at school are taking it easy on students for the first two days of school, by allowing open discussion and not giving too much homework. By next week, when serious studies will begin, students will have hopefully have their biological clocks fixed! __
