sleep

Great coverage in NYTimes about the importance of sleep:
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/index.html

Very relevant to educators:
"An Active, Purposeful Machine That Comes Out at Night to Play"

from the article:
"Now, a small group of neuroscientists is arguing that at least one vital function of sleep is bound up with learning and memory. A cascade of new findings, in animals and humans, suggest that sleep plays a critical role in flagging and storing important memories, both intellectual and physical, and perhaps in seeing subtle connections that were invisible during waking —"

It reminds me talk to the students about the importance of sleep. If sleep is so critically important to learning, shouldn't it be part of the curriculum, or anyway, part of what we discuss in class? Does anyone know a good way to get this across? (I'm not sure it's even part of the health-ed curriculum...going to have to investigate that!) Anyway, check it out , good stuff for educators to know...

Tags: health, neuroscience, sleep, sleep+learning

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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on October 24, 2007 at 5:19am

Hi Skip,
Thanks for the comments. I know I'm not a very clever ape when I'm sleep-deprived!
Here's one more link on the topic, sent to me by a school psychologist:

"Emotions Run Amok in Sleep-Deprived Brains"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20071022/sc_livescience/emotion...

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Permalink Reply by Kiana June Weber on October 24, 2007 at 9:31pm

As a student I find that I know the importance of sleep, and I personally love sleeping, but the real question is finding time for it. I high school I often had extracurriculars until anywhere from after school up until 9 pm on some days, and then I had to go home and do homework until 12 or one, and woke up the next morning for school which started at 8:00 in the morning. I know I had a lot more stuff after school than some people because of Theater, but what is the solution to this?

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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on October 25, 2007 at 5:25am

Wow--this is a first: my own daughter replying to a forum!
Well, now that you're in college, is the sleep situation changing at all? How are college kids about getting sleep?
I know what you mean--all the articles about the importance of sleep make no difference, if it's not to be had! Maybe somebody on the network knows some secrets about finding more time for sleep.