24th October 2014 7:00
By Blue Tutors
A new research study by the University of Oxford has concluded that getting enough sleep is crucial for teenagers’ academic results. The study suggests that teenagers start to function properly two hours later in the morning than adults, and require a later rising time. Parents have long believed that teenagers being tired in the morning is due to late nights. However, the study suggests that teenager’s sleep rhythms means that they function better when then go to bed later and get up later. The study involved thousands of teenagers who were required to sleep in an hour later and go to school later. It concluded that the teenagers saw a vast improvement in their results and attention in class, and suggested a later start to the school day may be a good thing.
As a private tutor I was interested to hear of these results. Tutors know generally that sleep is good for student’s academic performance and well-being. We also regularly have conversations with concerned parents who are worried that their children are staying up late and hard to get going in the morning. We have all warned parents that allowing children to stay up half the night on the internet isn’t the best course of action. But I doubt many of us have suggested that students sleep in of a morning. Apparently this is what’s necessary to help improve their performance.
Don’t get me wrong – this study doesn’t give teenagers carte blanche to play computer games all night and lie in. What it does mean is that we need to re-evaluate how teenagers function best, and accept that it may not be the same as us or their parents. This, really, is what one-one tutoring is all about. Rather than teaching with a one-size-fits-all approach, we have the opportunity to evaluate our student’s individual needs and find an approach that works for them. When helping our students organise their time, we would do well to remember the results of this study before we assume that they are being lazy in the mornings.