Of course, having said that teachers need to “do” and be models of learning in my last post, Sarah is also right when she reminds me (in the comments of that post) that one thing learners need to do is reflect … and rest, and dream.

Sleep deprivation has been linked to all sorts of bad things - chronic fatigue, depression, weight gain, irritability, headaches, memory loss, makes health conditions worse, causes accidents, failing grades, can impede physical growth, affects your immune system…it can even kill you.
Related to sleep is the concept of rest…

Girls and God: To Sleep, Perchance to dream…

We’ve heard the reports about the dangers of sleep deprivation, much of it brought on by our own fast-paced, driven society. Not only is our sleep deprivation hurting many working adults, but we’ve even transferred it to our kids in the way we construct the school schedule.

I’ve always been a night owl. My brain kicks into a higher gear at night, and I genuinely dislike going to bed and having to force my brain to stop. If I could have my way, I’d stay up until 2 each night and sleep until around 10 the next day. Of course, with a job in the public schools, that’s not possible. For some ridiculous reason, schools seem to think teens are ready to learn at 7:30 am.

As part of the “one size fits all” philosophy that’s currently plauging the mass educational system, schools disregard the findings of researchers who are telling us that sleeping patterns, like almost everything else about humans, are different from person to person.

Scientists call early risers larks, and late sleepers owls, and speak of morningness and eveningness to describe their differing circadian rhythms. Researchers believe that about 10 percent of the population are extreme larks, 10 percent are extreme owls and the remaining 80 percent are somewhere in between. And they say the most important factor in determining to which group a person belongs is not ambition, but DNA.
“Timing of sleep is genetically determined, whether you’re an owl or lark,” said Dr. Mark Mahowald, the medical director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. While most people are a little bit owl or a little bit lark, for others, Dr. Mahowald said, altering sleep habits is “like changing your height or eye color.”

The New York Times > Fashion & Style > The Crow of the Early Bird

And the problem is even worse for teens. As Bora Zivkovic reports in his blog (much of which is devoted to the study of sleep), “the circadian clock phase-advances in teen years. It persists in this state until one is almost 30 years old.” But we’ve paid little attention to this in most school districts. In Bora’s review of Snooze… or Lose!: 10 “No-war” Ways to Improve Your Teen’s Sleep Habits, he suggests money is at least somewhat to blame:

The schools used to start about 9am for most of the century (and before). Then, due to the pressure from business and economic (read “busing”) woes of school districts, the school starting times started creeping earlier and earlier starting back in 1970s until they reach the horirbly early times seen today in many places, requiring kids to get up as early as 5am in order to catch the school bus on time.

A Blog Around The Clock : Books: “Snooze…Or Lose! - 10 “No-War” Ways To Improve Your Teen’s Sleep Habits” by Helene A. Emsellem, MD

Anyone who has tried to teach an early-morning class is aware of the results of this system, and anyone who has taught at all realizes that the effects of this sleep deprivation last throughout the day. Usually in ignorance, teachers end up yelling at students for being lazy when they drift off to sleep, which just compounds the problem.

Zivkovic’s “viscious cycle of teen sleep” diagram illustrates the problem (and looks a bit like my own struggles with sleep … sigh):

When I’ve taught Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, I’ve always taken time to closely examine the recommendations given to Montag by Faber in his speech about the “three missing things” in that dystopian society:

“Number one, as I said: quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two.” (85)

It’s a prescription we should still heed closely, and 1/3 of the prescription is dependent upon having the leisure to reflect. Instead, we are depriving students of sleep, rushing them full-throttle through masses of fact-based information, too much of which is not quality (not substantive, not deep, not contextualized), and giving them very little time to reflect. When teachers are told to be teaching “bell to bell,” how can students possibly have time to relax enough to reflect? (Could blogging help somewhat here? I think so …)

Enough for now … the point is clear, I think. Educators should learn more about circadian rhythms, sleep in general, and the fascinating world of dreams. More importantly, we should give ourselves … and students … permission and time to reflect, rest, dream … and sleep.

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