28 Aug Covid-19 Is Stealing Your Child’s Super Power
The Covid-19 pandemic is causing the unanticipated side effect of more sleep deprivation among children and teenagers. The normal school structure was abandoned late in the school year and is no longer in place, so many children have been allowed to set their own hours when it comes to sleeping…or not. Now that school has reopened for many, albeit a mix of online and in person learning, teachers are encountering a new trend in sleep deprivation, which is affecting the student’s ability to think and complete school assignments on time.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Dr. Donn Posner, an expert in Behavioral Sleep Medicine, has stated that, “what happened with coronavirus is every day became a weekend and everybody was allowed to sleep in their own preferred phase.” Normally, following your own natural body rhythms is a good thing, but the consequences of too much unstructured sleep can also cause chronic insomnia.
We know, from previous research, that poor sleep habits can be a precursor to depression, hypertension, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, dementia, and substance abuse. It can also seriously affect your body’s immune system because it does not allow your body to rid itself of the neurotoxin waste that is created every day in your brain.
Because more parents are working at home, due to the coronavirus, they tend to be more structured in their sleep habits. But according to researchers in this country and in Europe, this doesn’t necessarily translate to the same structure for their children. William Joiner, in the science journal Current Biology, noted that adults who are working from home have a greater freedom to sleep within the parameters of their own natural sleep patterns.
Joiner also noted that the fragmentation of sleep patterns adversely affected the formation of memory by disrupting the neuro pathways, particularly in children. These changes in memory formation can have negative effects in children’s behavior, both in the short term and later in life. Sleep researcher, Kenneth Wright, has studied the effects on children and stated that it may take years for medical issues to develop from sleep deprivation as a child, but the short-term effect could lead to other behavioral problems and possible substance abuse.
All of this points to the importance of parents keeping a consistent sleep structure for children of all ages. With the evolution of Covid-19, its ongoing effect on our daily lives, the challenge of keeping children on a regular bedtime schedule can, admittedly, be very challenging. But it is important for parents to recognize the short and long-term implications for present day attention to their children’s bedtimes. Without it, children are being robbed of the very super power they possess in proper sleep to energize their body and mind.
For more detailed information, Click to get your personal copy of The One Minute Therapist at Amazon!
No Comments