PIEDMONT — More than 100 parents and community members packed into Piedmont High School’s student center to hear nationally known sleep specialist Dr. Jerrold Kram speak about youth and sleep — and emphasize how important sleep is for students and when to get help for sleeping disorders.
Kram, director of the Alameda-based California Center for Sleep Disorders and a board member of the National Sleep Foundation, spoke recently as part of the school district’s Education Speaker Series. Other upcoming topics include “Why We Need to Change the Way We Teach Math,” “The Social and Emotional Lives of Boys and Girls” and “Effects of Marijuana on the Developing Brain.”
Students need to sleep about 9.25 hours a night to be alert for learning at school, playing sports, studying and other more dangerous activities like driving, according to Kram.
“We have to get through to our kids that they are putting themselves in life-endangering situations, like driving a car while sleepy,” Kram said. “It can have fatal consequences, and does, and it can affect academic performance.”
In sixth grade, most children sleep enough, but by 12th grade, few get their suggested numbers of hours of sleep in a night, Kram said.
“We know American adults, and most adults in Western society, don’t allow themselves to sleep enough,” Kram said, “and that’s happening to kids. Currently, most kids are sleep-deprived. All of you who think you’re functioning on six hours of sleep per night — you aren’t.”
Drowsiness can be the result of simply not allowing enough hours to fall asleep and rest. Drowsiness can also be due to sleeping disorders like sleep apnea and narcolepsy.
Although it doesn’t come as a surprise for many parents, when students go to bed, they often also get more screen time — playing games, surfing the Internet or texting their friends — through mobile phones and tablets. These devices emit blue light, Kram said, which usually indicates a “wake up” time for humans.
“Blue light is extremely alterative,” he said. “It says ‘good morning’ instead of ‘good night.’ We need to start thinking about cutting back on blue light.”
Aside from giving yourself time away from mobile devices and computers before going to bed, Kram said it’s smart to use the dimmer function of your device at night, which cuts down on the amount of blue light you absorb.
Kram gave examples of sleep problems in students. A 17-year-old girl had three car accidents in a short period of time, all because she fell asleep behind the wheel. After study, it was determined she was staying up too late with her boyfriend and not taking precautions while driving.
A 15-year-old dropped out of school because his sleeping schedule was so out of whack that he fell asleep at 4 a.m. and woke up at 1 p.m. and didn’t make it to class. Students with this extreme problem, Kram said, often have untreated psychological issues that may need to be addressed. They also need careful, planned out resetting of their internal clocks to get back to a normal sleeping and waking schedule.
A 12-year-old was falling asleep at inappropriate times, including in class. She had depression, was on medications and was overweight. She also snored. Snoring is an indication of obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which the muscles in the throat relax and block the airways.
“Every child should be screened for sleep apnea if they snore,” Kram said.
Sleep apnea can also cause behavior problems like crankiness and hyperactivity as well as sleepiness. It can be corrected, he said, many times with a tonsillectomy or a machine that helps people breathe while sleeping.
Children can also suffer from narcolepsy, an excessive sleepiness that sometimes involves unexpected sleeping attacks. This condition can also be recognized through sleep study tests.
Kram ended his presentation by saying it’s never too late to build more sleep into students’ schedules. Sleep, he said, will help with studies because it helps with the students’ memory and attention. Kram said that students “getting some sleep is more important than them doing some more homework.”
The Education Speaker Series is presented by the Piedmont Unified School District with the support of the Associated Parent Clubs of Piedmont, Piedmont Educational Foundation, and Piedmont Parents Network.
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