Why researchers advocate starting classes later after lockdown experience

The pandemic has not been an easy one for teenagers, with prolonged school closures, difficulties in online classes and impediments to socializing in person with other young people their own age.

But it is possible that part of these teenagers had at least one important gain during the toughest months of the quarantine: the chance to sleep longer, since they did not have to wake up early to go to school.

And sleeping well is a crucial factor for health and development in adolescence — the main argument of doctors and experts advocating that face-to-face classes for young people should not start so early in the morning, to allow young people to get more sleep (understand lower).

A survey carried out in Switzerland, recently published in JAMA Network Open, evaluated the sleep of 3,600 high school students, with an average age of 16 years, during the initial months of lockdown in the country – between March 13 and June 6, 2020, when Swiss classes migrated to the remote environment.

When comparing the sleep time of these teenagers with a control group, which had been measured in 2017, that is, during a typical period of classes, researchers from the Center for Child Development at the University of Zurich concluded that, during the pandemic lockdown, students were able to sleep up to 75 minutes more per weekday (on weekends, there were no significant differences between the two groups).

This additional period of sleep was associated with better health indicators, the researchers found.

“Participants slept significantly more and had better health indicators, with less caffeine and alcohol consumption than before the pandemic,” says the research.

One problem detected by scholars is that these health gains brought about by the opportunity to sleep more were overshadowed by the higher incidence of sadness, isolation, sedentary lifestyle and depression in many adolescents during the pandemic, especially during the most restrictive period of quarantine.

That is, on the one hand, the adolescents interviewed in Switzerland reported being more rested and full of energy. On the other hand, they felt more lonely and sad for not being able to be in person with friends.

In conclusion, however, researchers at the Center for Child Development argue that the findings around extra sleep in the pandemic can help schools to outline their policies in case of future closures of face-to-face classes.

And the scholars go further, saying that “the study’s findings clearly show the benefits of school classes starting later in the morning so that young people can sleep more,” in the words of lead author Oskar Jenni, professor of Development Pediatrician at the University of Zurich.

The sleep of Brazilian teenagers

It is not possible to know for sure whether similar results of additional sleep time would have been identified among Brazilian adolescents during quarantine and online classes – noting, too, that many low-income young people here were prematurely pushed into the job market to help support their livelihoods. their families due to unemployment and the economic crisis, and many others were unable to regularly access remote learning content.

In 2020, a survey carried out jointly by FioCruz and UFMG identified that 48.7% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the country felt, at the time, worried, nervous or in a bad mood, most of the time or always.

They started consuming more sweets and ultra-processed foods, and they also became more sedentary — which certainly didn’t contribute to their health.

The survey did not address hours of sleep, but the quality of sleep — which worsened for 36% of young Brazilians.

But when young people have the chance to sleep more — and wake up a little later — the health benefits are already evident from a scientific point of view, explains neurologist Andrea Bacelar, president of the Brazilian Sleep Association, to BBC News Brasil.

“Sleep has an impact on teenagers’ mood, anxiety, depression and socialization,” she says.

In biology I am

Bacelar explains that young people who struggle to wake up early to go to school or who nap in the first morning classes cannot be called lazy or undisciplined. It’s a biological question:

“In this age group of 13 to 18 years, there is a tendency of delay in the production and in the curve of melatonin”, the hormone that induces us to sleep, says the doctor.

“Obviously, there are social media, the blue light produced by cell phones and other stimuli (which keep young people on) and make it worse. But biologically, most teenagers don’t get sleep around 10pm because there’s no sleep hormone being produced. in your body”, he continues.

The problem is that, despite this hormonal change, teenagers still need more sleep than adults — the recommendation is ideally to sleep 9 to 10 hours a night — to maintain good physical and mental health, and to stay alert. and motivated in class.

The account, therefore, does not close for students who study early in the morning, from 7 am: “We know that, even if this young person wakes up at 6 am — which is not the case for many who live far from school, they have to take a bus etc—, he would have to go to sleep at 8 pm to get the ideal amount of sleep that makes him grow, produce, do well and not nap in class. It’s practically unfeasible”, ponders Bacelar.

In 2018, the Brazilian Sleep Association applied questionnaires to 1,900 young people aged 13 to 17 in the country, who said they slept an average of six to six and a half hours on weekdays. In practice, this is equivalent to a picture of sleep deprivation in this age group.

Almost 60% of young people interviewed said they were dissatisfied with the amount of time they were able to sleep on weekdays.

“It’s a social ‘jet lag’, sleep deprivation by necessity, which results in a deficit of ten hours of sleep per week”, explains Bacelar. “And lost sleep has no return: if the teenager hasn’t grown up, he won’t grow up. And he can become more anxious or gain weight due to metabolic issues (linked to sleep deprivation).”

Start classes later?

For this reason, the association has advocated, in recent years, that Brazilian schools postpone the start of morning classes to at least 8:00 in the morning. A bill was even drafted for this purpose, but it ended up being delayed during the pandemic, explains Andrea Bacelar.

It is a debate that takes place in other countries. In the U.S., the American Academy of Pediatricians recommends that elementary school and high school equivalent classes not begin before 8:00 or 8:30 a.m. — something that was made law in California in 2019, with a July this year deadline for apply to all schools in the state.

The US Centers for Disease Control, however, highlighted in a document that most US schools still start their classes “too early”, which is associated with “health risks among high school students, such as being overweight, of alcohol and cigarettes and drug use, in addition to poor academic performance”.

A study reported by the BBC last year also found that good sleep in adolescence appears to be associated with improved mental health in adulthood.

Back in Brazil, the doctor Andrea Bacelar also understands the reasons that lead to the resistance of schools (and of some families) to changes in the opening hours of schools: entering later means having to leave classes later, which makes it difficult to task of balancing school shifts and other activities, and of reconciling teachers’ schedules (many of whom work in more than one school).

There is also the difficulty for many parents to take their children to school later, if they themselves have to get to work early.

Bacelar points out, however, that schools that adopted later schedules on their own in Brazil have observed gains in productivity, socialization, humor and attention among students.

“It is a fact that there are logistical issues, but it is possible to seek alternatives — for example, taking part in classes asynchronously (that is, without all students having to be in person at the same time) at a distance, as happened in remote teaching” , defends. “The health gains pay off.”

And the neurologist argues that going to school later should not be confused with going to sleep even later or spending more time in front of electronics at night.

“When parents tell me that ‘my child will stay on social media until later’, I say that the discipline with electronic devices must continue”, recommends the neurologist.

“It is necessary to stay away from blue light (the one produced by tablets and cell phones) an hour before bed, so as not to delay the production of melatonin. And the ideal is for the whole family to contribute and be ready to sleep earlier.”