WAKE UP CALL

Source: Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, TexasAug.mini storage 25--It's that time again, when local children head back to school.Class work, as well as band practice, athletics and other school activities, require that students are alert and well-rested.That means they need plenty of sleep."I think it's essential," Myliss Parker, director of advanced academics for the Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District, said. "They need energy to think, they need energy to perform. A well-rested body is a good performing body."A recent study at the University of Minnesota raises the question of whether students, particularly teenagers, are getting enough sleep, and whether some school districts begin classes too early, some as early as 7:30 a.m.According to the study, decades of sleep research have shown that this is too early for teenagers to be in school.The study reported that teens become sleepy around 10:45 p.m., when their bodies begin to secret melatonin, but once they fall asleep, they stay asleep for about nine hours and 15 minutes, waking at around 8 a.m.In response, many schools across the country changed their schedules for teenagers to begin classes between 8:30 and 9 a.m.Los Fresnos High School begins classes at 8:35 a.m. Other Cameron County schools begin classes around 8 a.m.Parker, who also coordinates the guidance and counseling department in Los Fresnos, said bus scheduling and the need for sleep factored in the district's decision, about 15 years ago, to begin classes at 8:35 a.m. At that time, the counseling department attended a training session on adolescent brain behavior and learned about the rapid development of the brain between the ages of 15 and early 20s.Parents will notice that their teenaged son or daughter starts sleeping more, which is a sign of the adolescent brain's development, she said."As the brain is developing, it starts affecting the sleep patterns of the teens and they start staying up later," Parker said. "Their bodies are calling for them to kind of become night owls and they sleep longer, but then that evens out later on."Most local school administrators weren't familiar with the adolescent sleep studies, but said class schedules were primarily based on bus routes.Rio Hondo's assistant school superintendent Elda Garza said the high school begins classes at 8 a.m.; classes in the other schools begin five minutes earlier. She didn't feel beginning classes at 8 a.m. necessarily cut into students' sleep time or performance."They all have problems staying awake if they've been up too late in the evening," she said. "Nowadays they are up with their gadgets until all hours of the night."A 10:30 or 11 p.m. bedtime still gives them plenty of sleep even if they wake up at 6 or 6:30 a.m., she said.Changing the schedule to begin high school classes at 8:30 a.m. would create some problems for parents who start work early, and for students' after-school athletics and activities.Alma Martinez, registered nurse and health services coordinator at the La Feria Independent School District, said classes at the junior high and high school campuses begin at 7:55 a.m. and end at 3:45 p.m.She said staff members have told her that changing the start time of classes to 8:30 a.m. would cause problems for the transportation department."It takes the buses approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes to get students to class on time and about the same to get them home," she said. "(Athletic) practices and work schedules will have to begin later since school will have to be let out at 4:20 p.m. to get the required seven hours of instructional time. This means students getting home at 6 p.m. or even later if they have afterschool activities."EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIESAdequate sleep for athletes is crucial, Lanny Wilson, Harlingeself storage High School South's athletic coordinator and head football coach, said. At his school, the first bell rings at 8:05 a.m.He talks with students about nutrition, exercise and the need for adequate sleep."We put the same emphasis on all three," Wilson said. "A bunch of them do go to bed too late."He agreed that some students probably stay up late playing video games, but added, "I don't know how big of a problem it is."Harlingen High School South's assistant band director Joey Rodriguez said young musicians also need plenty of sleep."It's really important to have enough energy for their performance," he said. "We stress a lot, 'Get plenty of sleep.' If they don't get enough sleep it will affect their performance. Kids are like cars. If the kids are running without gas, eventually they won't be able to perform at maximum effort."Monday is Harlingen South's first day of school, but band practice began weeks ago, at 8 a.m. Some students, Rodriguez noticed, had trouble adjusting their schedules.LATE NIGHT GADGETSRicardo Ibarra, social services manager at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, said he disagrees with classes beginning at 7:30 a.m. Teenagers need 10 to 12 hours of sleep and schools should begin classes about 8:30 a.m.He noted the typical student has extracurricular activities, on top of schoolwork, "and you-name-it." Adequate sleep means less stress, more energy and better academic performance.He also said children who have had adequate sleep also have fewer behavioral problems because their minds are clear and relaxed. They're less irritable, he said. They argue less with brothers, sisters and other children, and they're more likely to be respectful and listen to their teachers."The average time to get a high school child to bed is 10 o'clock, because sleep does generate the cells," he said. "Not only does it recalibrate their hormone levels for teenagers that affects their mood, but it also affects their appetite. It even repairs some muscles that they exercise, especially if they do sports."He advised curtailing late nights with electronic gadgets."We should reduce the amount of electronics, for example the cell phones, the video games, the TVs," Ibarra said. "Kids shouldn't have any electronics in their bedrooms. Any electronic device, it stimulates the brain, so it doesn't let it relax before sleep time."He said that if a child is going to bed at 9 p.m. and the electronics equipment is turned off at 8:45 p.m., that doesn't give the brain enough time to relax."The brain's still on that video game," he said. "So you need to give them a reasonable time to say, 'Hey! Get off the game. You're going to bed in an hour. Just give you some time to relax.' We need to eliminate that electric juice."Amber Jasso, 17, a senior at San Benito High School, said she sleeps about eight or nine hours during the summer and takes a nap in the afternoon."What I do in the mornings, I go work out, so that gets me tired, so by 1 or 2 o'clock I'll need a nap," she said.During the school year, she still manages about eight hours of sleep before beginning classes at 8:10 a.m. and she's able to focus very well, she said."When it's during softball season it's another story," she said. "I'm really sleepy, because we have game days and by the time we get home, we get home at around 10, 11, and we'll have to stay up late with homework."This means she must drag into class sleep-deprived some mornings. She said, however, it's worth it, and her grades don't suffer."I just have to get used to it," she said. "People help me out and stuff."twhitehead@valleystar.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) Visit Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) at .valleymorningstar.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉