Tue, 13 Jun 2017 13:46:04 +0000
By Edna Y.Kazonga
Mulenga Mwaume, a grade 11 pupil, is at school. The time is 0935hrs and the lesson is in progress. Something must have gone wrong because Mulenga is fast asleep as evidenced by a light dribble (saliva coming out of mouth) and a soft but audible snore (noisy breathing while sleeping). His pen has fallen off his hands and his exercise book is partially wet from the dribble. This situation is both sad and hilarious. Please use your imagination at this point! |
When Mulenga was woken up, he seemed confused because he grabbed the pupil next to him and squeezed the neck! I will again leave you to imagine the confusion in that class from that moment onwards. I am sure you have all been in a situation where you struggle not to laugh publicly in order to preserve the dignity of the victim (Mulenga). Before we discuss the possible causes of sleeping in class, let us see what sleep is and how important it is. Later we will discuss the effects of lack of sleep and also how to improve one’s sleep pattern.
What is Sleep?
According to the children’s dictionary entitled Oxford Junior Dictionary, “When you sleep, you close your eyes and rest your body and your mind”. The dictionary for older children which is called Oxford Mini School Dictionary defines sleep as, “The state in which the eyes are closed, the body relaxed and the mind unconscious”. In both definitions we encounter the word REST and RELAXED meaning that the body has found it necessary to take a break from the hustle and bustle of being awake. Should a teacher disturb the resting and relaxing body of a pupil who sleeps in class by waking him up? The answer is yes! If the pupils are allowed to sleep in class, they might develop a habit which will be difficult to let go when they are older. Imagine a Chief Executive who sleeps in the middle of a high profile meeting (no offence) or a driver of a Luxury Coach who sleeps while driving a bus which is full to capacity. Another example is when a 5 Star Hotel Chef falls asleep while on duty. It is also important to wake the pupil up in case of sickness so that appropriate attention is given. The teacher has to wake the pupil up in a gentle manner to prevent a possible inappropriate response from the surprised pupil as he wakes up (refer to Mulenga’s reaction in paragraph 2 line 1).
The Importance of Sleep
Just like machines, our bodies need time to rest, maintain and repair its system hence the need for sleep. Without sleep, our system can easily slow down or even shut down in extreme cases and this has devastating effects. A lack of sleep disorder is called INSOMNIA and is caused by different factors some of which are age, diet, type and amount of body activity. Lack of enough sleep can give our pupils fatigue, headache, loss of interest in school work, a bad temper, self isolation, and general mediocrity in severe cases. These and many more effects can easily be mistaken for malaria, pneumonia, migrane headache and even mental illness and consequently the wrong diagnosis can affect the pupil’s class performance.
Too much of sleep, on the other hand is not good at all whether one is a pupil or not as it promotes a feeling of heaviness and promotes laziness. Some religious circles refer to too much sleep as a spirit of slumber and may attempt to exorcise the victim. When a pupil sleeps too much, he not only misses out on fun and other activities but also loses interest in them and behaves like someone older than his age implying that his emotional intelligence is affected just like his intellect. In essence, both lack of sleep and too much sleep have devastating similar effects on pupils. Let’s strike a balance on how much sleep is essential for the well being of pupils and even adults.
What is Enough Sleep?
It is important for all pupils to have enough sleep, but what is enough sleep? This is a relative term and although scientists, psychologists and nutritionists may prescribe what enough sleep is, it is subject to change due to factors like age, occupation, general situation and necessity. Individual brains can adapt comfortably to a certain number of sleeping hours. For example, certain pupils are comfortable to study for some hours in the night and their brain has permitted it so they will never doze off in school. Other children sleep in class if they study in the night. It is all about adaptation. Some pupils wake up very early and never doze off in class while others fall asleep in class due to early rising.
Let us improve our sleep patterns
- Try to sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time everyday (approximately). This will eventually result into an easy sleep and easy wake up pattern with an almost automatic alarm clock developing in your mind. Your brain is amazing!
Avoid heavy meals well after 2100hrs. Late meals disturb the digestion patterns, may give you night mares, a restless night and an uncomfortably bloated stomach in the morning as you prepare to go to school.
Reduce on liquid intake especially coffee as you approach sleeping time.
Avoid late “Tele-Watch” as the images and messages you watch are temporarily imprinted in your young minds such as terror, horror or any strong emotions portrayed in what you watch. These intensities disturb your sleep in form of a ‘Replay’ in your mind as you attempt to sleep. Your brain is getting rid of horrors by replaying them as it exits them.
Divorce yourself from your mobile phone at late hours unless you are browsing for a school related issue. Texting unnecessarily can be addictive enough to sacrifice sleep.
Be physically active.
Why did Mulenga sleep in class?
Pupils’ sleep during the lesson can be classified as One-Off, Occasional, or Frequent. A one- off instant of sleep could be that the pupil was stressed by something at home or even at school in a one off simple event in form of sickness or anything tiring and the body could not contain the stress resulting in an unavoidable falling to sleep. Occasional sleep is when once in a while the pupil falls asleep. In all occasions, the teacher should get concerned but more so when a pupil sleeps frequently as this may be a serious case.
As we rule out sleeping sickness, let the teacher and parents work hand in hand to find the root cause which from experience is a result of any of the following: heavy house chores, sickness, laziness, traumatic experiences like sexual abuse, grief from loss of loved ones or simply living in homes infested with Gender Based Violence, extreme poverty, extreme unnecessary luxury, abnormally strict parents, over-ambitious goals and unrealistic expectation from family members. All these, among other factors can rob a pupil of enough sleep making them doze off or even fall asleep right in the middle of a lesson.
School Factors
Another factor that can make a pupil sleep in class is his perception of the lesson at hand. A pupil may perceive a lesson to be extremely difficult, as in beyond his reach. This results in lack of interest, boredom and finally the body adopts a sleep-mode to escape the discomfort. When teachers have to be changed constantly for one reason or the other, the pupil suffers in the un-bonding and re-bonding process with new teachers and may lose interest and fall asleep to escape the discomfort. Pupils who can’t handle correction well and who can’t take jokes may fall asleep to escape the discomfort. Continuous failing of a certain subject can create boredom and lack of interest in the lesson at hand and the pupil may fall asleep to escape the discomfort. Notice that escaping the discomfort may be an unconscious action meaning that the pupil is not even aware of why he falls asleep so he may struggle to keep awake but in vain because falling asleep is an outlet activity for the brain to maintain required comfort levels within the age group.
However, some pupils may choose to deliberately fall asleep during the lesson due to the fact that they are oriented to particular categories of their intellect. Some pupils are more comfortable with Social Science lessons like History, Civics, Religious Studies and may get bored to the extent of falling asleep in Natural Science lessons like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry etc. Similarly, there are pupils who are Natural Science oriented and remain wide awake during Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics lessons and start dozing off or even sleep during History, Civics etc. The reason is that different parts of the brain may be stimulated differently in different pupils. This may be deliberate or it can be beyond the pupil’s control.
Way forward
All trained teachers are aware that child involvement is necessary in every lesson to make it interesting. This is done by using pupil-centred teaching methods in as many lessons as possible. Parents should be in constant touch with the teachers and vice-versa to enable them detect sleep problems early in the children. Pupils should never sleep in class. Mornings are a blessing because other people did not wake up so thank God and remember that God’s blessings are new every morning therefore do not sleep in class.