Causes of Tiredness and Exhaustion in School-Aged Children

I've been a teacher in various educational settings for over 25 years. There's an increasing and alarming trend among school age children: tired, sleepy, lethargic children who can't pay attention in class. Why is 'Sleep student syndrome' so prevalent? Before I address 'sleepy student syndrome' (my own term), let me make a few disclaimers. First, lest readers should think that this issue affects only pubescent, teen students, let me state that teachers are seeing an increase in 'sleepy students' in all age categories and grade levels.

Teachers expect that students entering puberty and teenage years will be sleepier and show increased signs of exhaustion in school. That's just part of the development process. Teens are in a state where their circadian rhythms are undergoing a change from childhood patterns to adult patterns. However, increased tiredness and lethargy is occurring in preschool, elementary, middle school and high school students. The student of 2010 is on the whole more tired and lethargic and less alert than their counterparts of 15 to 20 years ago.

'Sleepy student syndrome' crosses all economic, social and cultural backgrounds. It affects students in schools of all sorts of structural styles: Montessori, military school, parochial school, open classroom, homeschool. 'Sleepy student syndrome' is not exclusive to one population and educational style. It's a national trend and it may be international also. I have not researched educational patterns outside of the United States. As you might expect, sleepy student syndrome affects student participation and behavior, school success and overall student morale. Very often, a student who appears to have 'behavior issues' is in fact over-tired and bordering on illness.

Why are students so much more tired and lethargic now? The issue has several factors:

-Students do not get enough sleep at night. The trend is for children to go to bed later at night than in times past. Some children have no set bedtime. Middle school and high school begin quite early in the morning and elementary schools are beginning earlier too. Some schools begin at 7:30 in the morning. The amount of time a student spends sleeping is decreasing. But the amount of sleep they need isn't. The deficit has to be made up somewhere.

-Students are busier after school and in the evenings. After school events, sports, social groups, church groups, volunteer groups, community activities: the student of today has a busier schedule after school than ever before. Couple this with the trend in school toward more homework and you have a child who is busy from 6 a.m. to 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. at night.

-Student nutrition causes lethargy and tiredness. When I was young, very few people drank soda. We did not eat at restaurants often and fast food very rarely. In his documentary Supersize Me, one of the first health issues Morgan Spurlock noticed with his 'McDonald's only' diet, was exhaustion and lethargy. With the increase in pop, fast food and junk food consumption we are becoming a nation of over-weight, under exercised, over tired people. Consuming a diet low in vitamins, minerals, fresh produce and protein and high in trans fat, animal fat, processed foods, artificial ingredients, salt and sugar is depleting our bodily resources. This diet is affecting our children at an unprecedented young age.

Happily, the trend is reversible, on an individual basis. Simple changes in diet, sleep patterns and family schedule can dramatically improve student concentration and performance. For more on health and education, visit the blogs listed.