In The Land of Nod

Daydreams are fun, but our brains really need the nocturnal kind.
A column I wrote about sleep will appear in the Elk Grove Citizen on Wednesday, Aug. 26.
There is so much information by scientists, physicians and laymen about sleep. Why we need it, what happens if we don't get it and how to get more.
We all need different amounts of sleep and NO ONE is excluded from needing it. Even if you can pull an all-nighter by drinking three Red Bulls or a gallon of coffee, by the next night your body will need more sleep to make up for the missed hours.
I started writing my weekly column about sleep because, well, I was tired. But fortunately, as an adult, I can help myself to a cup or tea or coffee to perk up. Children on the other hand cannot.
The most fatigued I've ever been was in junior high school. I woke up about the same time I do now- 6 a.m. But I was a growing teen then. I had a full schedule of extra curricular activities and after school activities too. Of course, I had fewer responsibilities than I do now. And I still have a packed schedule. But I think that extra hour or two would really help growing young adults.
A New York Times article titled “Snooze or Lose” focused on overscheduled, extremely ambitious children missing out on sleep. According to experts in the article, students now sleep one hour less than children did 30 years ago.
“It has been documented in a handful of major studies that children, from elementary school through high school, get about an hour less sleep each night than they did 30 years ago. While parents obsess over babies’ sleep, this concern falls off the priority list after preschool. Even kindergartners get 30 minutes less a night than they used to,” according to the article.
Stress may be part of the lack-of-sleep problems experienced by students, but I think schools start too early for many young kids.
I know this is so students’ schedules match-up with their parents’ work schedules. But ensuring students, especially children, get adequate sleep is essential to their success. “One study found that REM sleep affects learning of certain mental skills. People taught a skill and then deprived of non-REM sleep could recall what they had learned after sleeping, while people deprived of REM sleep could not,” according to the National Institute of Health Web site.