Doctors have long stressed the importance of getting enough sleep at night — particularly for adolescents, for whom lack of rest can lead to serious issues such as depression, impaired judgment and academic underachievement.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Terra Snider, a mother from Wilmette, Illinois, became an advocate of high schools pushing back their start times after watching her own children struggle to get up in the morning. Snider claims that it's a "public health issue" that deserves national attention. Some school districts agree, and are pushing for a change.
"Students are really taxing themselves to do more and more to build their resumes, keep up with the Joneses," Steve McWilliams, principal of Barrington High School in Illinois, told the source. "The challenge is trying to get students to find the appropriate balance. Kids think, 'well, I'm functioning.' But if they got enough sleep, think about how better they'd feel. We're trying to focus on student health as a whole — drugs and alcohol, good decisions about sleep, diet, friends [and] technology."
Getting the right amount of sleep at night can be especially challenging for children who suffer from allergies or asthma, as their irritating symptoms make keep them awake and result in many nights of tossing and turning. The good news is that there are asthma and allergy products that parents can buy to prevent this from happening. Hypoallergenic bedding, for example, may significantly reduce the amount of indoor allergens that become trapped in your child's bed over time, enabling your son or daughter to breathe easier and sleep sounder.
