On 5th December 2023, a governor of a State (province) in India urged the Education Department to consider change in school timings so that students could catch up with sleep.
I was wondering, that even if the advice was right, the solution was such that it could worsen the problem.
Smartphones can cause a lot of health issues and hence smartphones should be handled smartly.
Delaying school timings will only encourage students to spend even more time with the smartphone. Overuse of electronic devices at night is known to disrupt sleep patterns. In fact, health experts recommend that television, smartphones, toys having lights etc. should not be in children’s bedroom during sleep hours to ensure sound sleep.
Overuse of smartphones not only interferes with sleep but can also cause eye strain, tech neck, text thumb etc. Hence smartphones should be handled smartly.
A disrupted sleep in a student is a recipe for academic disaster just as sleep deficit in a worker can lead to industrial disaster (gas leaks, nuclear accidents etc.). A sportsperson who had a disturbed sleep can lose a match.
In addition, students with chronic insufficient sleep are more likely to demonstrate feelings of hopelessness, loneliness, exhaustion, anxiety, and desire to self-harm. Students with chronic sleep deficit are also overweight or obese and more likely to feel depressed. Hence, advice should be to sleep well.
The act of a child going to school or college to study is no less than an adult going to a workplace to do a job (work). The child is engaged in the act of ‘occupation of studying’ now for an ‘occupation for wages’ in future.
A sleep deprived person usually has low academic or work performance. A sleepy student is a sloppy student just as a sleepy worker is a sloppy worker.
Sleep is very important. In fact, some of the CEOs of USA these days often emphasize that sleep should be given priority over diet and exercise in a wellness program. The irony is that sleep is hardly talked about in most wellness programs. Instead of wellness initiatives starting with diet and exercise, it should start with sleep as it is as basic a need.
A sleepy student is a sloppy student just as a sleepy worker is a sloppy worker.
Wellness initiatives in corporations talking about work-life balance should focus on sleep emphasizing that sleep is a basic need to recover and rejuvenate.
Sleep leadership in the corporate world is all about encouraging sleep among workers by senior managers.
The act of a child going to school or college to study is no less than an adult going to a workplace to do a job (work). The child is engaged in the act of ‘occupation of studying’ now for an ‘occupation for wages’ in future.
Children going to school or college to study can be considered to be engaged in a unique occupation as their workplace (school/college) is not bound by any legal healthcare requirements.
Hence, sleep leadership must be introduced in schools and colleges where students should be told about benefits of good sleep as it leads to improvement in critical thinking, creativity, relationships, performance and general health. Sleep time of at least 7-8 hours should be encouraged among students as it is a good recovery tool that helps rebuild the body and mind. Sleep leadership in schools will help the younger generation of workers in future work efficiently.
Sleep incentives does help in making people get more sleep. At health insurance Aetna, employees who can prove (using Fitbit data or other means) that they’ve had a good night’s sleep can receive a per-night monetary incentive.
Sleep leadership must be introduced in schools and colleges as it will help the younger generation of workers in future work efficiently.
If you have a morning school, the old saying ‘early to bed, early to rise’ is a statement that most students will find useful. Using smartphone for academic activities or information seeking is a good thing to do. However, engaging in social media apps may not be beneficial as it sucks away a lot of your valuable study time.
Some schools and colleges employ doctors to advise them on health affairs. In USA, there are universities having an Occupational Health department employing doctors and nurses. The doctors in such schools, colleges and universities having such a facility should demonstrate sleep leadership and encourage students to have 7-8 hours of sleep.
A Governor of a State (province) in India has a panel of doctors for advice on personal and other matters. If the Governor had an Occupational Health (OH) physician as part of the panel, the statement would have been different rather than urging the Education Department to consider change in school timings so that students could catch up with sleep.
Governments would greatly benefit if they empanel an OH physician in their team of health advisors for appropriate inputs of many such opinions and advisories due to their experience in proactively managing health of various occupations.
And when there is no support of doctors or an Occupational Health department, ‘sleep leadership’ in such situations becomes ‘sleep discipline’, as you are your own leader!
With the workforce increasingly being dominated by millennials and Gen-Z, ‘sleep leadership’ will find a platform soon in organizations where it hasn’t; that’s the future and that’s one of the solutions which leaders will find it difficult to ignore to improve performance!
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Dr Ajay Sati is an Occupational Health physician who prefers to describe himself as an Occupationist, to denote, ‘an expert in diseases and other concerns of occupations.’ Dr Sati has managed health and wellness programs in industries he worked, like the atomic energy, and energy (oil & gas) in India and overseas. An experienced virtual consultation expert he was involved in many greenfield and brownfield projects providing inputs from health point of view.
