EVERY parent, educator and policy- maker in Malaysia would like our children to excel in their education, apply what they have learnt and pass their exams with flying colours. Ultimately, we would want our children to be healthy and successful in life.
In this digital era of iPhone, iPad, YouTube, Google, Facebook and Twitter, our children are spending too much screen time every day, texting and playing games late into the night. On top of that, most children have to start school early, either at 7am or 7.30am.
Recently, Nor Shahid Mohd Nor from Petaling Jaya wrote a letter lamenting that his grandson only has seven hours of sleep instead of the required 10 hours recommended by experts (“Students so busy that they don’t sleep enough” — NST, Aug 14).
The thing that gets me worried about his grandson is that he keeps playing games on his mobile phone until he falls asleep late at night. He doesn’t state what time his grandson falls into slumber, but if a child is playing games on a smartphone, it can be addictive and we may assume that he sleeps around midnight. In that case, he doesn’t even have seven hours of sleep every day. Is his grandson’s daily routine typical of a Malaysian student?
As a teacher, I remember one student I tutored before. He would play games for about seven hours a day and play late into the night until 3am or 4am. The next day, he would sleep during school hours. Another international school student under my tutelage would also play games until 1am or 3am and wake up at 5.30am. Of course, both of them didn’t fare well in their academic assessments as they didn’t have adequate sleep.
How many students in Malaysia are following this lifestyle?
Dr Av Sadeh from Tel Aviv University performed a sleep experiment on sixth graders. One group of children was asked to sleep an extra 30 minutes or more per night consecutively for three days and the other group was asked to reduce their sleep by 30 minutes or more per night consecutively for three days. The results were startling as the group of sixth graders who slept one hour less per night performed in cognitive tests just like fourth graders. Sadeh explained that a loss of one hour’s sleep each day was equivalent to the loss of two years in cognitive development.
Just imagine that Nor Shahid’s grandson is deprived of three hours of slumber each day. How much of his cognitive development and performance would be undermined by his lack of sleep?
The problem is that most schools start early at 7.30am and most students have to get up early to avoid traffic jams, leaving them with severe sleep deprivation. Worse still, some international, private and public schools end their school time at 3.30pm, leaving students with no time to take a nap, which is vital for recovery.
A mounting body of research shows that students who suffer from sleep deprivation would be hyperactive and have a hard time concentrating in class.
In the United States, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention recommends schools to start at 8.30am or later (“US teens start school too early” — NST, Aug 8) so that students would have an additional hour of sleep per day to boost their academic performance.
In the United Kingdom, schools start at 9am. In China, schools run from 8am to 4pm. However, every student in China has at least half an hour or one hour of nap time during the day to recuperate from drowsiness. Lately, Shanghai was in pole position during a recent Programme for International Student Assessment test.
In light of this, I strongly urge the Education Ministry to seriously consider starting our schools at 8.30am. And, if possible, make sure our students have the time to nap so that their brain and body can function at their best.
Having a healthy mind is just as important as a healthy body.
L.C.B., CHERAS, SELANGOR