Got sleep?

The idea of having sleep guidelines for under achieving teens and children in Australia sounds ridiculous. Yes, sleep is important but surely having the government consider sleep guidelines for teens, brings to light a few issues.

Firstly, should this issue of teens and children having trouble with living up to their full potential in school be resolved by sleep guidelines, there’s a matter of how following these guidelines would be monitored. It’s just like the law released this year of banning parents from smoking in the car with children. It only seems to make sense to that this law be passed and is just common knowledge not to smoke in such a confined space with children present, yet there are those who continue to do so. Surely not every offender of this law will be caught by police or at least it would be difficult to do so unless police are at the ‘right place at the right time’. Same sort of idea may be applied to that of sleep guidelines.

In regard to possibly having sleep guidelines in the future, the issue basically comes down to the influences children and teens have at home. After University of South Australia professor Timothy Olds conducted the research of teen sleep patterns, they found the link between sleep patterns and weight gain, saying children and teens that have less sleep are more likely to develop problems. The parents and caretakers of these teens and children who are not doing well academically are perhaps to blame for not setting the example. From my point of view, it’s down to home environment and influences away from school. By the age of ten, surely young people would have a fair idea of how their bodies work and know when they’re tired and need rest. Yet another thing to ponder...

By Teza Altez