More sleep or more exercise: the best time trade-offs for children’s health
unisa.edu.au
unisa.edu.au
There is tremendous value in open door daycare policies. Some kids arrive 730 because thats their parents schedule. Others at 10 because little sam decides to sleep in.
Its unfortunate that the assembly-line aspect of post-K schooling forces kids to fixed times which are often at odds with the children or even parent's needs
Whenever I hear, "turned out fine" it prompts me to look closer.
Also, there were a group of girls on the bus who harassed me by repeatedly exposing their privates towards me with impunity. It didn't matter if I ignored them, it happened for at least 2 years.
The "magnet" schools seemed to group poor and dysfunctional kids together and then try to sprinkle middle-class and gifted kids involuntarily under a social experiment that they'll make the other kids "better" by osmosis. The promise of the "magnet" school was they were supposed to do something extra and get more money, but I think they were a magnet for concentrating problems. My guess is there was a lot of child abuse occurring against girls in the low income areas and at magnet schools, so some of them were experiencing precocious puberty and acting-out.
Oddly enough, I was never in a fight with other boys anytime in school, probably because I dwarfed everyone else. Or maybe we were all too tired to care?
Also interesting was by high school, which started later, I was able to awaken at the same minute (7:58 am) every day. By then, I bicycled 3.8 miles / 6.1 km twice a day to school; a school with a parking lot full of students' Mercedes and BMWs while the teachers were making peanuts.
A lot of kids may have been asleep at noon, like the Spanish siesta, equally, kids may have been involved in the midnight harvest, or caring for the fire.
Things tended towards more of several smaller sleeping periods spread out over the entire day, and periods of activity at times that might feel strange now.
Sleeping 8pm to 6:30am is enough. But you have to put them to bed by then.
In retrospect I'm glad I always had a full night's sleep, because I wouldn't have if left to my own devices.
Nowadays parents keep their kids up all hours of the night, I really don't get it. I see elementary aged kids out and about (in public) 9, 10, even 11pm.
Now in retrospective, I am glad I learned to cut activities and go to sleep. Paid off in college, actually. And I plan to do the same for my kids.
1 - https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/specialties/sleep-disord...
In winter, there is dark at like 17:00. How do their bodies know difference between 22:00 and 24:00?
The best part of this is not having to get up very early. My oldest was picked up by the bus at 6:07 AM every day. Now she wakes up more naturally and it's been a fantastic change. She can get more rest, if needed, when she has her monthly, which isn't something she would be able to normally do.
And no, it wasn't some ancient history either.
Actually, in general, high school was the most demanding part of my life, so far as long stretches of time go (sure, I've had the odd week or month that's worse). And I was a pretty bad slacker about things like homework (given the time demands even with that lax attitude, I think I'd have gone actually-crazy otherwise).
Middle-aged now. Nothing's been as rough as high school, or even close. And I had it pretty easy (no significant bullying issues or anything like that, stable home life)
I'm conflicted on this, mostly because that after school time was very valuable to me, much more than being able to sleep in a little more. This was extra true in the winter, when the sun set by 5pm. I also recognize that not everyone to be as easily up and awake that early in the day.
Here in the Netherlands and most of Europe kids go to school independently. They are not constant prisoners of adults stuck in american suburbia where one can only safely go from A to B by car.
Here, they just make a sandwich themselves. Grab their bike and go to school when school starts. The schedule of parents might mean the parents are already gone. The schedules do not need to be in sync and mom isn't the kids drive around slave.
Here in SF our kids have some of this independence; but their school is still miles away. I walked to my suburban school in the 70's. SF has density to permit some independence but then undoes the benefit of that with its schooling model and chaos.
Pre-pandemic my kids could take MUNI. I biked with them. The bike ride is not bad but is too dangerous for kids who have not yet developed paranoid city road awareness. So my spouse or I got with them every time..
But this is already an unusual circumstance. Among urban friends in other places I can't think of more than a handful whose kids were independent in this fashion.
Here in the Bay Area places like Fairfax let you live the dream though... it seems plausible that if the ground shift to "hybrid" or full remote is real and sustained, there will be even more reordering of lifestyle and population in pursuit of this.
That would be a silver lining...
I've recently read that the erosion of free-roaming children has increased exponentially in the years that I've since graduated highschool.
It also depends whether you need to hop on a bus, then it’s definitely at second grade.
It was not about how "Useless American Children are" Many kids in America get up everyday and dutifully and independently handle the process of attending school. There was even a term called "Latch Key Kid", where a child had a key and basically locked the door on the way out and opened when they got home.
For example, take the general culture of outrage. Over time has permeated into the right to have free-roaming kids.
The US has had high profile cases of parents sent to jail , because of twitter gestapo reporting. When the pendulum swung too hard on this direction, there was also pushback: concerned parents lobbied to pass laws enshrining the right of parents to make the determination of when kids can roam freely.
The answer is more complex, but certainly there is an american angle to it.
So if you decide to sleep more, perhaps you want to sacrifice something other than exercise.
Also I don't know how anyone can take BMI by itself seriously.
BMI is very useful if you're looking at large data sets. BMI for individuals is not very useful. I'm not sure of the efficacy of BMI for ~1200 data points.
Are there any other causes you could think of that would cause a BMI increase across a sufficiently large data set that would not be caused by fat?
With MVPA being "extra exercise".
Interesting, how light activity is negatively associated. For adults its often suggested otherwise..
I haven't heard of any schools starting later than this, nor I have I heard any place discuss doing so (at least not as a serious proposal).
I prefer staying up late, really late, like 3am. But along with the shorter sleep comes late night eating and probably a less efficient body function overall.
So -- if you're sitting down, you are better off going all the way to sleep?? That is definitely not intuitive! Or is that only for extending the 'full night' of sleep?
I suppose if you are sitting and awake, you can still eat food, whereas when you're asleep you are probably not eating.
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health/obesity-and-...