U.S. Students Surpass Their Peers — in Sleepiness
Research shows that sleepiness hampers academic performance.
Fourth-grade teachers consistently report that more than 70 percent of their students have “some” or “a lot” of trouble learning in their reading, math and science classes because of sleepiness, according to an of two international studies on academic progress.
The findings suggest that American pupils are a lot more sleep-deprived than their peers in other countries. Internationally, overall averages for sleepiness range between 46 percent to 58 percent, depending on the grade level, according to the analysis.
A student takes a nap break from studying.
Pink Sherbert Photography/Flickr
Students’ lack of sleep, the studies found, correlate with lower performance in those subjects.
A recent report on teen behaviors here in Hawaii found that local students are even more sleep-deprived than their mainland counterparts.
Just 27 percent of high school students get eight or more hours of sleep on an average school night, compared with a U.S. average of 32 percent.
