| Katie Hunter S5
Most of us by now will be back into the swing of school life, I know I’m feeling tired but could a lack of sleep be having an impact on our ability to learn?
Less than 3% of people can operate well on a consistently small number of hours sleep. Whilst the current US president may be somewhat inspired by the Iron Lady, former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and claim to only require three hours a night, the vast majority of us need somewhere around 8 hours of good sleep each night. Lack of sleep can quickly have a damaging effect on our ability to concentrate and perform.
Did you know that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain responsible for decision making, working memory and planning, hibernates during sleep allowing mental connections and creative associations to occur? I know I certainly didn’t (although science was never my strong point!)
Having a good sleep after learning something new also improves the chances that we will remember it in a way that makes it practical. Although, unfortunately, that doesn’t mean we should have a nap after every homework task. The brain has free reign while we are asleep to sort through the information it has taken in during the day and decide what is important. The sleeping brain sorts and connects information without the distractions or justifications of a conscious mind. Therefore, insufficient sleep means we are not giving our brains time to integrate information in a meaningful way and therefore operating at a suboptimal level. In turn, this can make day-to-day decision making, problem solving and creativity much more difficult. It also becomes harder for us to regulate our emotions and handle stress.
Research undertaken by the NeuroLeadership Institute and its faculty member, Professor Jessica Payne, has shown that sleep levels are closely related to stress and mood and that good sleep is one of the three key states required for the human brain to maintain its resilience and perform optimally. Neuroscience shows that the brain works at its best under moderate levels of stress – teachers please take note! However, if stress is too high, we become anxious and cannot process information properly. If they are too low, our brains tend to relax and we can miss the information coming through.
The solution? Sleep experts have linked sleep deprivation with the use of mobile phones and computers in bedrooms at night. I’ll admit it, I’m guilty as charged. Those “couple more minutes” of Netflix turn into a couple more episodes more often than not.
By turning off those screens, having a regular bedtime and talking with friends and family about any worries you may have, you are almost guaranteed to wake up feeling much chirpier than usual (provided you aren’t faced with double maths first period!)
