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I wish high school teachers would take note of this. My kid goes to an accelerated program high school in Toronto and she is so swamped with homework and tests,

I wish high school teachers would take note of this. My kid goes to an accelerated program high school in Toronto and she is so swamped with homework and tests, she hardly gets any sleep on weeknights and on some weekends too.

stephengillie 8y ago
Have you talked to the teachers? Or helped your kid to create a study schedule?
bena 8y ago
Take this study with a grain of salt. It only shows that teens who engage in risky behavior are more likely to get less sleep, not that less sleep leads to risky behavior in teens.
- chillacy 8y ago
  We know in small scale sleep lab studies that low sleep leads to changes in emotional processing (one of the functions of REM sleep is to tune your emotional regulation), so that at least offers a plausible mechanism of action. As far as risky behavior though, you're right that causation isn't yet firmly established here. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dream-catcher/201112/rem-sleep-emotional-regulation-and-prefrontal-cortex https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dream-catcher/201112... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163498/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163498/
cbhl 8y ago
There are lots of options to mitigate this. You can take them out of the accelerated/gifted program and put them back on the "normal" university track in high school. The big risk is that it will cause your kid to get alienated socially among both the "normal" and the "gifted" kids, so make sure that your kid is involved in the decision-making process. If your kid has an IEP, you can also talk to the teacher to get accommodations. For example, maybe your kid could quietly work on their homework during their school day, instead of being forced to pay attention to the teacher's lecture. You can also just tell the kid that they can decide how much homework they want to complete. In high school and university, any un-completed work just gets recorded as a zero; if the kid is already getting 80s and 90s then a few missed or half-complete assignment questions shouldn't materially affect their final grade (provided they understand enough of the main concepts to complete major tests/projects/exams). Having a strategy for deciding what work is safest to drop/defer when you're overwhelmed is a useful skill both in upper education and in the workplace. Source: Went to a high school in York Region.
- manishsharan 8y ago
  Thank you. I found your comments very insightful and helpful.
prablenha 8y ago
I'm sure the teens that use weed or carry guns are not the same ones that get swamped with homework and tests.
- acct1771 8y ago
  Why are you sure of that?
  - prablenha 8y ago
    Personal experience as a high school attendant back in the day.
    - acct1771 8y ago
      Ah. The schools where I knew kids like you described were the ones where the "attendant" had "Brother" before their name, haha...

stephengillie 8y ago

Have you talked to the teachers? Or helped your kid to create a study schedule?

bena 8y ago

Take this study with a grain of salt. It only shows that teens who engage in risky behavior are more likely to get less sleep, not that less sleep leads to risky behavior in teens.

chillacy 8y ago
We know in small scale sleep lab studies that low sleep leads to changes in emotional processing (one of the functions of REM sleep is to tune your emotional regulation), so that at least offers a plausible mechanism of action. As far as risky behavior though, you're right that causation isn't yet firmly established here. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dream-catcher/201112/rem-sleep-emotional-regulation-and-prefrontal-cortex https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dream-catcher/201112... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163498/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163498/

cbhl 8y ago

There are lots of options to mitigate this. You can take them out of the accelerated/gifted program and put them back on the "normal" university track in high school. The big risk is that it will cause your kid to get alienated socially among both the "normal" and the "gifted" kids, so make sure that your kid is involved in the decision-making process. If your kid has an IEP, you can also talk to the teacher to get accommodations. For example, maybe your kid could quietly work on their homework during their school day, instead of being forced to pay attention to the teacher's lecture. You can also just tell the kid that they can decide how much homework they want to complete. In high school and university, any un-completed work just gets recorded as a zero; if the kid is already getting 80s and 90s then a few missed or half-complete assignment questions shouldn't materially affect their final grade (provided they understand enough of the main concepts to complete major tests/projects/exams). Having a strategy for deciding what work is safest to drop/defer when you're overwhelmed is a useful skill both in upper education and in the workplace. Source: Went to a high school in York Region.

manishsharan 8y ago
Thank you. I found your comments very insightful and helpful.

prablenha 8y ago

I'm sure the teens that use weed or carry guns are not the same ones that get swamped with homework and tests.

acct1771 8y ago
Why are you sure of that?
- prablenha 8y ago
  Personal experience as a high school attendant back in the day.
  - acct1771 8y ago
    Ah. The schools where I knew kids like you described were the ones where the "attendant" had "Brother" before their name, haha...