Study Says 7-hour Sleep Helps High School Students Do Better

Even seven hours of sleep is ideal for high school students to do better in studies, reveals study.

"We're not talking about sleep deprivation, the data simply says that seven hours is optimal at that age," said study co-author Eric Eide from Brigham Young University (BYU).

Sleep - Overview and Definition
Sleep is a behavioral state of restricted physical activity. It is controlled by our internal biological clock.

The new study, led by Eide and BYU economics professor Mark Showalter, is the first in a series where they examine sleep and its impact on our health and education.

Surprisingly, the current federal guidelines are based on studies where teens were simply told to keep sleeping until they felt satisfied, said a university statement.

"If you used that same approach for a guideline on how much people should eat, you would put them in a well-stocked pantry and just watch how much they ate until they felt satisfied," Showalter said. "Somehow that doesn't seem right," he added.

Quiz on Sleep Disorder
The comfort of modern life comes at the cost of restful sleep! "Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone-Anthony Burgess" Scientifically it is proven that a good night's sleep is imperative for maintaining a balance between the physical, emotional and behavioral well-being of a person.

Analysing data from a representative sample of 1,724 primary and secondary school students across the country, they found a strong relationship between the hours of sleep youths got and how they fared on standardised tests.

"We don't look at it just from a 'your kid might be sleeping too much' perspective. From the other end, if a kid is only getting 5.5 hours of sleep a night because he's overscheduled, he would perform better if he got 90 minutes more each night," Eide said.

Epworth Sleepiness Scale
Measure your daytime sleepiness using this simple interactive tool, based on Epworth Sleepiness disorder Scale. Excessive Daytime Sleepiness is a type of hypersomnia characterized by persistent sleepiness and lack of energy.

The size of the effect on test scores depends on a number of factors, but an 80-minute shift toward the optimum is comparable to the child's parents completing about one more year of schooling.

Source-IANS

Sleeping Disorders
How many times have you stayed awake in the dead of the night counting sheep? If it is fairly often then you could be suffering from a sleep disorder!