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June 12, 2008Delaying school start time by one hour positively affects adolescents' cognitive performance |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Delaying an adolescent's school start time by one hour has a positive effect on his or her cognitive performance, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Thursday at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS). The study, authored by Orna Tzischinsky, PhD, of Emek Yezreel College in Israel, focused on 47 eighth graders from two classes, who were divided into experimental and control groups for a two-week period. On the fifth day of each week, the students performed a cognitive test. According to the results, during the first week, the experimental class woke up 51 minutes later on average than the control class, while during the second week, the experimental and the control class woke up at the same time. Bedtime and sleep efficiency remained the same during both weeks. "The results demonstrate that longer sleep duration positively affects cognitive functioning." It is recommended that adolescents get nine hours of nightly sleep. Avoid foods or drinks that contain caffeine, as well as any medicine that has a stimulant, prior to bedtime. Make your bedroom quiet, dark and a little bit cool. The annual SLEEP meeting brings together an international body of 5,000 leading researchers and clinicians in the field of sleep medicine to present and discuss new findings and medical developments related to sleep and sleep disorders. More than 1,000 research abstracts will be presented at the SLEEP meeting, a joint venture of the AASM and the Sleep Research Society.
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