wake up! It's your back-to-school primer
Why the right amount of sleep is vital for students, plus other tips and tricks for a successful academic year
Sleep
Sleep is key to learning, experts agree. Both education expert Terry Small and Wendy Hall, professor at the University of B.C.’s School of Nursing, say getting enough of it is very important for kids (and adults).
A lack of sleep can negatively affect children’s physical and emotional health and their ability to learn, Hall says. She says a panel review of more than 845 research papers found that five-year-olds need 10-13 hours a night, six- to 12-yearolds need nine to 12 hours a night, 13to 18-year-olds need eight to 10 hours a night and adults need at least eight hours of shut-eye.
Hall says there are all kinds of problems related to not getting enough sleep. These can include an increase in risk-taking behaviour like not wearing a seat belt or a bike helmet, or psychological problems such as suicidal thoughts or feelings of hopelessness.
If younger kids aren’t getting enough sleep, they won’t be as attentive in the classroom, their marks start to suffer, and teachers may report distracted behaviour.
To ease the back-to-school transition, Hall recommends making bedtime 15 minutes earlier every two nights for two weeks and getting kids up earlier as well.
“What I would recommend for parents getting them ready to go back to school is to try to get back into bedtime routines, because during the summer those all go out the window,” Hall said.
“(They should also) try to reduce their screen time and try to have it no closer than two hours before bedtime, because they get exposed to blue light from the screens and that affects the secretion of melatonin, which is their sleep hormone.”
Hall does not support giving kids melatonin to help them get to sleep, but she said a snack like crackers and cheese or some warm milk might help.
Motivation
Terry Small, a former teacher who is now a public speaker on brain health, says he often talks to kids about why they go to school — particularly because what they learn may never be used outside of school; kids often forget what they’ve learned, and some of what they learn soon goes out of date.
“What I tell students is that you go to school to become a more interesting person,” Small said. “When you work through your French vocabulary or your science notes, what you’re actually doing is changing the structure of your brain and making connections between your brain cells.
“The more connections you have, the faster your brain can become. You are laying down the tracks for future learning.”
Children are fascinated to know that their brains are actually physically changing as they are learning, Small says, adding that going to school is like a workout to develop your brain for the future.
Fast signal transmissions in the brain help with learning. According to Small, the best way to keep these transmissions sharp is to eat well, exercise and get enough sleep.
For more information on how to boost your brain for learning, visit terrysmall.com.
Nutrition
Good nutrition is essential to learning and breakfast is the “brain meal,” Small said.
“A lot of people skip breakfast, which is a disastrous way to get your brain ready for school,” he said, adding that it’s also a harbinger for weight gain.
He describes a healthy breakfast as plain yogurt with a bit of pure vanilla, some berries, some walnuts and some cinnamon, perhaps paired with some grainy toast with organic honey or sugar-free jam.
“I eat that for breakfast and I have got energy to burn all day. It’s profound. You can almost feel the effect within minutes of eating it,” Small said.
For a healthy brain snack, Small recommends on his website (terrysmall.com) a mixture made up of a half-cup each of unsalted peanuts, almonds or walnuts, soy nuts, pumpkin seeds, dark raisins, and chopped, dried apricots all mixed together and eaten a bit at a time.
This mixture contains vitamin E, iron and protein, all of which have been proven to boost your memory and protect your brain from Alzheimer’s, Small says.
Exercise
Small recommends getting exercise every day as a way to boost the brain’s ability. In particular, he says, exercising in the morning sets the brain up for being in a better mood all day.
“Exercise is the new rock star of neuroscience,” Small said.
“There is masses of research to support how critical this is for learn- ing.”
Exercise helps get blood moving to the brain, Small said. The brain releases chemicals in your brain after exercise that make you feel good, he said.
Getting kids off the couch and outside exercising can be a battle, but there are ways to make it part of a family’s culture and habits, Small said.
One idea is for parents themselves to be committed to exercising every day and then figuring out ways to include the children. Another idea is to get family pedometers and have a family goal for a month. If you reach the goal, make sure to celebrate it.
“If it’s part of the culture, it just becomes who we are and what we do,” Small said. He added that studies have found kids lose weight and their marks go up when their screen time is limited.
Stress
Almost every student will feel some stress about going back to school, said Dzung Vo, clinical assistant professor in pediatrics and adolescent medicine at B.C. Children’s Hospital and UBC.
“Back-to-school stress and anxiety is completely normal and (young people) don’t need to feel bad about it or ashamed about it,” Vo said. “The most important thing is to find out how they can cope with it in a healthy way and get support from the people in their lives who care about them.”
One strategy for coping is to practise mindfulness, which involves concentrating on your breathing for even just a few breaths, clearing your mind and focusing on the present moment. Mindfulness can be practised just on your own or as a systematic method of stress reduction, Vo said.
“Even three breaths can help get you out of a moment of anxiety,” Vo said. For more information about mindfulness meditation, visit mindfulnessforteens.com.
Vo encourages parents to listen to their children without judgment. Other stress-busting strategies Vo recommends are talking to someone you trust; listening to music or being creative; spending time with animals or in nature; and writing in a gratitude journal.
Vo said it’s time to get help if stress is stopping you from getting to school or doing as well as you’d like to do at school; or stopping you from seeing your friends or sleeping properly; or causing appetite changes, headaches or stomach aches, or mood changes like being sad or anxious all the time or having thoughts of harming yourself. Young people can contact the crisis line at youthinbc.com or 604-872-3311.
Small says stress is not good for the brain, particularly over a long period of time. If a child is being bullied at school, for example, their stress level could be elevated for a sustained period.
Small encourages parents to be involved in their son’s or daughter’s school life and says that, above all, kids want their parents to be proud of them. “When you put parents on your team, grades go up,” he said.
He says even if kids won’t talk about what’s bothering them, just knowing they’re supported and part of a team at home can help alleviate stress.
Studying
It’s important for students to have a study strategy, Small says. By that, he means they should know how they’re going to get the information they need, how they’re going to store it and how they’re going to retrieve it when they need it.
Visualization is a great aid to memory, he said. It can help to stop studying in order to form a picture in the mind that relates to the concept.
One important tool for academic success is using different colours while taking notes, Small says. He suggests setting up a notebook with notes only on the right hand pages, taken in blue ink.
The left-hand page should be used to write down questions that the student thinks might be on the test about the material, written in black ink.
Red ink should be used for highlighting important things and for writing a little circled “t” beside any parts likely to be on the test.
Green ink is for personal thoughts, such as notes about what might make a good project or something a student wants to ask for help about.
When studying, the student can cover up the right-hand side notes and try to answer the questions. In this way, studying is more active than passive, Small said.
“If you’re not using questions when you study, you’re probably not going to remember much of anything,” Small said.
Small also recommends using a “cover card” to cover the notes. This is a piece of paper on which the student writes down the grades they want to get, class by class, so they can see their goals every time they study.
“It’s profound, how it shapes the direction for studying and conversations at home,” Small said.
Another idea is to use cue cards, with questions on one side and answers on the other. Students can be quizzed by someone else. They might find they remember more if they walk while studying or say the answers out loud, Small said.
“If you’re not using questions when you study, you’re probably not going to remember much of anything.” — TERRY SMALL THE BRAIN GUY