Can good sleep be taught?
Sleep is important for the learning process. On the one hand, it ensures that pupils are rested and ready to learn, and on the other hand, what they have learnt during the day is consolidated during sleep. Sleep is a particular challenge for young people who typically stay up late and don't get out of bed in the morning.
Many people believe that teenagers make a conscious decision to stay up late at night and lie lazily in bed in the morning. But this is too short-sighted. During this phase of life, the «internal clock» (the sleep-wake rhythm) changes. This means that teenagers are not tired when their parents send them to bed and do not wake up when they have to get ready for school.
A US study showed that teenagers who went to school later got more sleep, got better grades and were absent less.
Many pupils therefore sleep less than recommended, which affects their learning performance. Some schools have tried to adapt to this by moving school times back, meaning that the school day starts and ends later.
A study from the USA showed that the young people got more sleep this way and at the same time refuted the theory that they consciously opted for less sleep. Their grades also improved and absences were reduced.
Greater awareness of healthy sleep
In the UK, the Education Endowment Foundation's «Teensleep» project also aimed to investigate the impact of starting school later. Unfortunately, the schools were not in a position to make the necessary changes. Instead, pupils were educated about the important role of sleep in the learning process.
The preliminary study showed that although this education did not directly improve sleep, it had other positive effects. For example, the pupils napped less often during the day and developed a greater awareness of healthy sleeping behaviour.
The pilot study shows that scientific research in schools cannot simply be applied by testing theories and then implementing the results on a large scale. Although the findings to date indicate that starting school later improves learning performance, it is impossible to change all school times because of this.
A change of this magnitude would also have an impact on teachers' working hours, parents' everyday lives and even the school bus timetable. This is an example of how improving the performance of young people cannot be the sole criterion for translating research findings into the classroom.
Sleep should not be overrated
Rather, schools should consider the scientific evidence and make the best decision for them based on their own values and priorities. The same applies to any scientific recommendation.
Although the educational programme on sleep behaviour in the UK only had a minimal effect, it may well be that young people could be persuaded to adopt healthier sleeping habits over a longer period of time. Other education programmes were more successful and resulted in better grades, which could be attributed to longer sleep.
Teachers could take into account the lesson time and the expected tiredness of the pupils when preparing their lessons.
Greater awareness among teachers of the importance of sleep could also be beneficial. For example, it would be possible to take into account the lesson time and how tired pupils are likely to be when preparing teaching materials.
Although it seems sensible at present to explain the importance of sleep for the learning process, we should definitely refrain from overemphasising it. After all, sleep is of course only one of many factors that affect our ability to learn.
If teenagers, who don't get enough sleep anyway, become too preoccupied with their sleep behaviour, this can lead to unconstructive anxiety - similar to some adults who use sleep tracker apps.
Nevertheless, given the lack of sleep that many pupils suffer from during the week, the topic remains a priority area for anyone who wants to improve young people's learning performance.
