Junk Sleep

If you have teenagers, you know the struggles of trying to get your kids to eat well and avoid junk food. Something new to add to the list - junk sleep. In a study of 1000 British teenagers The Sleep Council found that:

30 percent managed just 4 to 7 hours sleep as opposed to the recommended 8 or 9 hours

Almost a quarter said they fell asleep more than once a week while watching TV, listening to music or using other electronic gadgets.

Adds Dr Chris Idzikowski of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre,

What we are seeing is the emergence of Junk Sleep - that is sleep that is of neither the length nor quality that it should be in order to feed the brain with the rest it needs to perform properly at school.

If you find that your students are having a hard time paying attention or seem unusually groggy, they may not be sleeping enough or may be suffering from junk sleep. Of course it could just be the boring lecture you're giving!

Read more here.