High schools are embracing naps as the solution to too-little sleep among students, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
“With technology and the demands placed on high schoolers, I wouldn’t be surprised if the average nightly sleep goes down to five hours,” Raj Dasgupta, a fellow with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, told WSJ. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 8 to 10 hours per night for high school-aged children.
Sleep is critical to learning and clear thinking, which is why these programs have the potential to make a big difference for students.
The approach to napping varies among the handful of schools embracing them across the country, from giving students access to nap pods (one school acquired a Restworks EnergyPod through a government grant), meditation and wellness centers, technology-free rooms, sleep-health consultations and incentive programs, like offering students with good grades a free first period to sleep in.
As WSJ reports, the new outlook on napping in the U.S. follows the example of sleep-positive countries around the world, like Japan, where one high school encouraged a midday nap for students a decade ago, finding the rest time led to a “dramatic rise in test scores.”
Read more on WSJ.
Originally published at journal.thriveglobal.com