英科學家建議學校11點開始上課以應對年輕人睡眠不足危機

School start times should be put back to as late as 11am to combat a sleep-deprivation crisis among young people, a scientist has suggested.

一位科學家指出，學校應當把上課時間推遲到上午11點，以應對年輕人所面臨的睡眠不足危機。

Paul Kelley, of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford, said young people in Britain were losing on average 10 hours’ sleep a week, making them more sleep-deprived than a junior doctor on a 24-hour shift.

來自牛津大學(University of Oxford)睡眠和晝夜節律神經科學研究所(Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute )的保羅·凱利(Paul Kelley)表示，英國的年輕人平均每週損失10小時睡眠時間，這使他們比一個24小時輪班工作的實習醫生更缺乏睡眠。

Speaking at the British Science Festival in Bradford on Tuesday, Prof Kelley called for an end to early starts at schools, colleges and university to "improve the lives of a generation".

凱利教授在8日在布拉德福德(Bradford)舉辦的英國科學節(British Science Festival)上講話時呼籲，學校、學院和大學取消清早上課的規定，以“改善這一代人的生活”。

He said children aged eight to 10 should start school at 8.30am or later, 16-year-olds should start at 10am and 18-year-olds at 11am.

他表示，8到10歲的兒童應該在早晨八點半或之後開始上課，16歲和18歲的青少年應該分別在上午10點和11點開始上課。

Kelley has been working with fellow Oxford neuroscientist Russell Foster and Steven Lockley of Harvard Medical School to push for a sea-change in the approach to sleep for children.

凱利教授曾與牛津大學的神經系統科學家拉塞爾·弗斯特(Russell Foster)和哈佛醫學院(Harvard Medical School)的史蒂文·洛克利(Steven Lockley)共同努力推動兒童睡眠方式的一場鉅變。

They have been working with the Education Endowment Foundation and the Wellcome Trust on the Teensleep project, which Kelley said was the largest study of its kind and which is aims to recruit 100 schools to trial different start times.

他們曾與教育捐助基金會(Education Endowment Foundation) 和威康信託基金(Wellcome Trust)聯手共同發起了青少年睡眠（Teensleep）項目。凱利教授表示，這是此類項目中規模最大的，旨在召集100所學校來進行不同上課時間的試點。

The recommendations arise from a deeper understanding of circadian rhythms – our internal body clock, which determines optimum levels of concentration, wakefulness and work ability.

這些提議基於對晝夜節律（也就是我們內部的生物鐘）更深層的認識，因爲晝夜節律決定了我們的注意力、清醒狀態和勞動能力何時能達到最佳水平。

“At the age of 10 you get up and go to school and it fits in with our nine-to-five lifestyle,” Kelley said. “When you are about 55 you also settle into the same pattern. But in between it changes a huge amount and, depending on your age, you really need to be starting around three hours later, which is entirely natural.”

凱利說：“10歲時，你每天早起去學校，這符合我們朝九晚五的生活習慣，大約55歲時你也很適應這個模式。但這中間的時期有很大的變化發生，根據你的年齡，你的確需要把上課時間往後推遲3小時，這是很正常的。”

Ignoring our natural circadian rhythms could lead to exhaustion, frustration, anxiety, weight gain and hyper-tension, he said, and could make a person more prone to stimulant or alcohol use and risk-taking.

他還說，忽視人體自然的晝夜節律將會引發疲憊、沮喪、焦慮、增重和高度緊張等症狀，還會使人更容易服用興奮劑、飲酒以及冒險。

“This is a huge issue for society,” Kelley said. “We are generally a sleep-deprived society but the 14-24 age group is more sleep-deprived than any other sector of society. This causes serious threats to health, mood performance and mental health.”

凱利說：“這對社會來說是個不小的問題。當今社會，我們普遍都缺乏睡眠，但年齡14到24歲的人羣比任何其他年齡段的人都更缺乏睡眠。這會嚴重威脅人們的健康、情緒表現和精神健康。”

If schools across the UK adopted the new start times, he said, GCSE attainment would rise by about 10%.

他說，如果英國的學校都採用這個新的上課時間，那麼獲得普通中等教育證書(GCSE)的人數將會上漲約10%。

The problem goes beyond merely feeling tired, Kelley said. If a child gets less than six hours sleep a night, over the course of a week this can lead to more than 700 changes in the way their genes behave.

凱利說，問題不僅僅是會覺得疲憊。如果一個兒童每晚的睡眠時間少於6小時，這樣持續一週，將會導致基因行爲方式發生700多個變化。

Similar changes are not seen in children who get eight-and-a-half hours sleep a night. He said illnesses as serious as schizophrenia often developed at an age associated with the beginnings of sleep deprivation problems.

同樣的變化卻不會發生在每晚睡8.5小時的兒童上。他說，像精神分裂症這種嚴重疾病的發病年齡通常與睡眠不足問題開始的年齡有關。

Kelley said every governing body of every school in the UK had the power to alter start times if they wish. He conceded that later school starts might be problematic for working parents, but added: “The interesting thing is that parents usually support this. All the studies show that later start times improve family life, travel times are shorter, it’s safer for children to travel to school.”

凱利說，英國每個學校的管理部門都有權利修改開始上課的時間，如果他們願意這麼做的話。他承認，推遲上課時間可能會給工作的父母帶來一些問題，但又補充道：“但有趣之處就在於，家長們倒普遍支持這一改變。各項研究都表明，推遲上課時間可以改善家庭生活，出行時間縮短了，孩子們去上學的路上也更安全。”

Guy Meadows, a sleep physiologist at the Sleep School in London, agreed there was a problem that needed tackling. He said: “British children are among the most sleep-deprived in the world. There was a recent study which looked at 900,000 children globally. The US was top and Britain came sixth. Sleep is vitally important for children, and it’s when they develop mentally, physically and emotionally.”

倫敦睡眠學校(Sleep School)的睡眠生理學家蓋伊·梅多斯(Guy Meadows)也同意，我們需要解決這個問題。他說：“英國兒童現在是全世界兒童中最缺乏睡眠的人羣之一。最近有一項研究調查了全球90萬名兒童的睡眠缺乏狀況，其中美國位列第一，英國位列第六。睡眠對兒童來說至關重要，這是他們智力、體力和情緒發育的時期。”

He said families had a key role to play in ensuring children get enough sleep. In school sessions aimed at teaching children how to improve their sleep, Meadows said, 96% of participants said they used a phone or mobile device in the last 30 minutes before sleep.

他說，家庭在確保兒童得到足夠睡眠上起着重要作用。在學校教授孩子改善睡眠質量的課程中，梅多斯說，96%的參與者表示，他們曾在睡前30分鐘使用手機或移動設備。

“We’re finding that children have phones or tablet from the age of about 10 or 11. These devices emit light which mimics the light from the sun and they essentially trick our brains into thinking we should be active, not winding down for sleep, and that interferes with our circadian rhythms,” he said.

他表示：“我們發現，很多兒童在10歲或11歲左右時就有了手機或平板電腦。這些設備發出的光亮模擬太陽光，這使我們的大腦誤以爲我們應當保持活躍狀態，而不是放鬆下來，準備睡覺，這也干擾了我們的晝夜節律。”