Sleep health among schoolers- What can we do?

【作者】 荣润国；

【机构】 香港中文大学精神科学系；

【摘要】 Sleep deprivation is a global problem among school aged children and adolescents with a series of negative impacts to academic,mood,cognitive,cardiovascular,metabolic and general well-being.There is a web of internal and external factors contributing to sleep deprivation among students including biological and circadian factors,school work,parental sleep schedule,extracurricular activities and importantly the early school start time.In addition,consistent data suggested a crosscultural difference at which Asian children and adolescents obtained much less sleep(with almost an hour) than their European and American counterparts.Interestingly,when comparing thesleep pattern of the childrenbetween Hong Kong and Shanghai,Hong Kong Childrenseemed to get lesser sleep over past 10 years.However,the importance of adequate sleep and related consequences of sleep deprivation has not been well addressed at both community and individual level.Sleep researchers and clinicians have attempted to promote the importance of sleep by various interventions.School-based sleep education program is developed upon the belief that knowledge acquisition could lead to positive behavioral change.However,general findings from the literature including our own study did not find significant improvement in sleep duration or improvement in sleep habits,albeit there are significant behavioral and mood improvement.As the early school start time in combination with biological delay in adolescent’s circadian rhythm is closely contributing to sleep deprivation among adolescent students,several groups of researchers have also liaised with schools and educational authorities to delay the school start time.Current evidence suggested that later school start time is an effective measure in improving students’ sleep and health.Nonetheless,there are many logistic obstacles and resistance during the implementation of a later school start time.This lecture will focus on the magnitude of sleep deprivation among schoolers,and to review the effectiveness and feasibility of various measures,including school-based sleep education and delay school start time interventions.In particular,possible suggestions for future development of sleep intervention will be discussed in order to maximize the program efficacy.In order to combat this global sleep deprivation epidemic,it is necessary to engage various stakeholders from healthcare providers,community,family members,educational workers to policy makers in promoting adequate sleep among our growing students.更多还原

【Abstract】 Sleep deprivation is a global problem among school aged children and adolescents with a series of negative impacts to academic,mood,cognitive,cardiovascular,metabolic and general well-being.There is a web of internal and external factors contributing to sleep deprivation among students including biological and circadian factors,school work,parental sleep schedule,extracurricular activities and importantly the early school start time.In addition,consistent data suggested a crosscultural difference at which Asian children and adolescents obtained much less sleep(with almost an hour) than their European and American counterparts.Interestingly,when comparing thesleep pattern of the childrenbetween Hong Kong and Shanghai,Hong Kong Childrenseemed to get lesser sleep over past 10 years.However,the importance of adequate sleep and related consequences of sleep deprivation has not been well addressed at both community and individual level.Sleep researchers and clinicians have attempted to promote the importance of sleep by various interventions.School-based sleep education program is developed upon the belief that knowledge acquisition could lead to positive behavioral change.However,general findings from the literature including our own study did not find significant improvement in sleep duration or improvement in sleep habits,albeit there are significant behavioral and mood improvement.As the early school start time in combination with biological delay in adolescent’s circadian rhythm is closely contributing to sleep deprivation among adolescent students,several groups of researchers have also liaised with schools and educational authorities to delay the school start time.Current evidence suggested that later school start time is an effective measure in improving students’ sleep and health.Nonetheless,there are many logistic obstacles and resistance during the implementation of a later school start time.This lecture will focus on the magnitude of sleep deprivation among schoolers,and to review the effectiveness and feasibility of various measures,including school-based sleep education and delay school start time interventions.In particular,possible suggestions for future development of sleep intervention will be discussed in order to maximize the program efficacy.In order to combat this global sleep deprivation epidemic,it is necessary to engage various stakeholders from healthcare providers,community,family members,educational workers to policy makers in promoting adequate sleep among our growing students.更多还原