How children can learn better and sleep well

At last year\’s Beijing Winter Olympics, Gu Ailing, who achieved \”two golds and one silver\”, was in the limelight. This Stanford academic who excels in both studies and sports has mentioned in many sharings that he has a \”secret weapon\” – ensuring that he sleeps 10 hours a day. Some netizens immediately questioned: How is this possible? Even my primary school students can’t sleep for 10 hours! What is emotional intelligence and how to develop high emotional intelligence? Skills to Strengthen Children\’s Inner Strength PDF According to the National Sleep Foundation\’s recommended sleep times: 10-13 hours for preschoolers (3-5 years old); 9-11 hours for school-age children (6-13 years old); 9-11 hours for adolescents (14 -17 years old) is 8-10 hours… Therefore, Gu Ailing has fully met the standard. However, for most students, it is good to ensure 7 hours of sleep every day. The latest survey released by the my country Sleep Research Association shows that it is very common for primary and secondary school students to have their sleep occupied by academic work and entertainment every day. Among them, 27% of teenagers have to compress their sleep time to do homework and study; more than 60% of teenagers use their sleep time to play mobile phones, play games and watch TV series. This has also led to the phenomenon of sleep deprivation among Chinese teenagers continuing to worsen. The average sleep time of primary school, junior high school, and high school students is only 7.65 hours, 7.48 hours, and 6.5 hours. The vast majority of children do not meet the standard sleep time. What impact will poor sleep have on children? How can we be kind to our brains? Today is International Sleep Day. Doudehui interviewed \”Come on!\” Dr. Huang Xiang, the author of \”Brain\” and an attending physician at the Brain Surgery Department of Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, asked him to share the important impact of sleep on teenagers and the deep-seated reasons behind children\’s behavior from the perspective of authoritative brain science. Sleep is also a part of learning. According to traditional perceptions, students\’ love of sleeping is often related to \”lazyness\”. It seems that \”reading at night\” is what academic masters should look like. However, modern neuroscience has told us that sleep is an important part of improving learning efficiency, and sleep itself is also a part of learning. Yes, lack of sleep in children will not only cause problems such as inattention, but also affect cognitive abilities. According to \”Sleep\” magazine: A person who has not slept for 17 consecutive hours (for example, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.) has a cognitive ability roughly equivalent to that of a person with a blood alcohol content of 0.05%. It can be seen that if you continue to study without sleeping for a long time, the sensitivity of the brain has been greatly reduced, and the learning effect will naturally be poor. In addition, researchers from MIT\’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences also found that students who stay up late studying and don\’t get enough sleep often appear to work very hard but have average academic performance. Students who get enough sleep and have a regular schedule have better academic performance. If we explain it from the perspective of brain science, we have to mention the hippocampus, the key player in the brain\’s learning and memory. Many times, the reason why children \”learn and forget\” is because when a piece of information enters the brain, the first thing that is formed is short-term memory. Only by forming a stable long-term memory that can be easily recalled at any time in the future can we call it effective learning.for. Before all information is engraved into the cerebral cortex, it must first pass back through the hippocampus for screening and encoding. Therefore, if you want to better utilize the brain\’s memory and learning effects, you must understand the characteristics of the hippocampus and take good care of it. Dr. Huang Xiang reminded that first of all, the hippocampus usually works diligently in our sleep, summarizing and sorting out all the content we have learned and experienced during the day, coding and screening. This process is very important for memory effects. Therefore, if you don’t sleep well or have insufficient sleep time, the hippocampus will work disorderly, and the large amount of information input during the day cannot be effectively sorted out, and important information can easily be deleted by the brain. This further manifests as memory loss and poor learning results. Therefore, the fact that academic masters \”can memorize the book as soon as possible\” and low-achieving students \”forget it as soon as they close it\” may be closely related to the work efficiency of the hippocampus. If you want your hippocampus to work better, you also need a complete and regular sleep cycle. In order not to disturb the work of the hippocampus, scientists advocate full cycle sleep, which means sleeping for about 7.5-9 hours. The recommended sleep duration for teenagers around the world is basically close to this time. For example, school-age children (6-13 years old) are 9-11 hours a day, and teenagers (14-17 years old) are 8-10 hours a day. In addition, regular sleep is also important. A British study found that children who did not have a consistent bedtime performed poorly on reading and math tests. Researchers at the University of London found that children who had irregular bedtimes scored lower on reading and math tests than those who went to bed earlier. \”If you want to improve learning efficiency, you must be kind to the hippocampus and don\’t show off when it comes to sleeping.\” Dr. Huang Xiang emphasized. Having adequate and regular sleep can help children better engage in a new day of study and life. Specifically, how to use sleep to improve learning efficiency? Dr. Huang Xiang has the following suggestions: 1. Stop information input when sleeping. Some children like to wear headphones and listen to English and music while sleeping, thinking that this can cultivate their sense of language or relax their emotions. However, according to the principles of brain science, doing so will actually affect learning efficiency. The most critical reason why the hippocampus works during deep sleep is that the brain stops inputting information during sleep. Only after the input of information stops can the hippocampus organize the information properly. If you sleep with headphones on, your brain will be constantly receiving new information, which will inevitably interfere with the hippocampus\’ processing of existing information. 2. Make good use of 1-2 hours before going to bed to study. Since bed time is a critical time for the brain to organize information, it is necessary to make good use of the time before going to bed to study and remember, especially the 1-2 hours before going to bed. According to the law of Ebbinghaus\’s forgetting curve, people will forget more than half of the content after 1-2 hours of learning new knowledge. However, if you go to sleep within 2 hours after learning new knowledge, let the unforgotten knowledge directly enter the sorting process through the hippocampus and become the brain\’s long-term memory, which will greatly improve learning efficiency. The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve needs to be pointed out in particular that a nap is also sleep, and the hippocampus will also be in working condition. Therefore, the time before going to bed at night or before taking a nap must be carefully grasped.It would be a shame to use it to play mobile phones or games. 3. Napping is as important as sleeping at night. Studies have confirmed that the human body’s sleep is controlled by the biological clock and has a certain pattern. A person\’s fully awake state can only last about 4 hours, and then he will fall asleep once. A 20-30 minute nap is equivalent to quickly recharging the human body. It can not only improve memory, but also regulate mood and relieve stress. But at present, for the majority of primary and secondary school students, they often lie down on the table and sleep with their arms as pillows. This may cause pressure on the eyeballs and easily lead to eye diseases such as myopia and glaucoma. This year, representatives of the two sessions suggested that primary and secondary schools should provide conditions so that children can lie down and take a nap. In Dr. Huang Xiang\’s opinion, this is very necessary. Sleeping well is not only about learning well. Research shows that if teenagers are sleep deprived for a long time, it will not only affect memory and learning effects, as well as the well-known growth and development problems, but also affect a child\’s emotional health, such as anxiety and depression. . According to statistics from the World Health Organization, an estimated 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression, and the trend is becoming increasingly younger. Most of them are teenagers aged 14-30, and even children aged 8 or 9. Nowadays, anxiety and depression have seriously affected the physical and mental health of our country\’s adolescents and children. Sleep problems are a hidden reason that receives less attention. The \”2019 Chinese Adolescent Sleep White Paper\” report shows that children who do not sleep well are prone to problems such as low mood, bad temper, inattention, and excessive anxiety before exams. And among teenagers with poor sleep quality, 40.5% will develop symptoms of neurasthenia or depression; among teenagers with good sleep quality, this proportion is only 1.4%. A survey from The Guardian also showed that staying up late leads to a decrease in sleep quality, which will greatly increase the incidence of mental illness in teenagers. How to solve children’s sleep problems? A new survey shows that today, electronic entertainment and academic pressure are the main reasons why teenagers go to bed late. More than 60% of teenagers play mobile phones, play games and watch TV dramas during sleep time; secondly, they complete study and homework tasks, accounting for 27%. In response to the homework problem, some schools in Jiangsu have begun to launch a \”homework circuit breaker mechanism\” that allows children to unconditionally stop homework after 9 p.m. to ensure that students get enough sleep. This policy quickly aroused heated discussion, and a WeChat survey showed that 68% of parents supported it. Many parents expressed envy that they finally no longer have to choose between \”finishing homework\” and \”going to bed early\” every day. In fact, in addition to the heavy workload, many children are unable to complete their homework because they procrastinate and lack concentration on homework. As for the more common and serious problem of children playing mobile phones, playing games and watching TV dramas, which takes up sleep time, parents need to be more patient and wise. The common difficulty behind this is that they have to fight against the child\’s concentration and self-control, and these are limited resources that are easily consumed. Dr. Huang Xiang said that from the perspective of brain science, maintaining long-term focus mainly relies on two hormones in the brain: dopamine and serotonin. The former isConveys happy neurotransmitters, which can relieve uneasy emotions and keep the mind clear. The simplest way to promote the secretion of dopamine is to give a certain reward when the child reaches a certain goal; and the best way to adjust serotonin in the body is to develop a regular schedule and the good habit of going to bed early and getting up early. However, he found that in real life, there are some incorrect rest behaviors that will damage children\’s concentration, such as playing games, watching videos, etc., which keep children highly focused and stimulate the body to secrete a large amount of norepinephrine, so that There is no extra energy to invest in the next learning tasks. Therefore, when children are tired from studying and need to relax, parents must pay attention to guidance. For example, the time spent watching videos and playing mobile games should be controlled within a certain time every day. When resting, try to close your eyes and relax, listen to soothing music, take a walk outdoors, etc. to reduce the endocrine secretion of norepinephrine and reserve energy for subsequent learning. Suggestions for improving learning efficiency from the perspective of brain science. In addition to adequate and regular sleep, what other methods can be used to improve learning efficiency and allow the hippocampus to function better? Dr. Huang Xiang also put forward some suggestions. 1. Stimulate interest in learning and give the learning content a certain meaning. From the perspective of brain science, \”interest is the best teacher\” makes sense. Because when a child genuinely likes the content he or she is learning, the brain will determine that the content is conducive to survival and quickly engrave it into the cerebral cortex. If children are not interested in a certain learning content, they can also give it the meaning of interest. For example, change your child\’s favorite Disney movie to an English version, and agree that as long as you complete certain learning tasks every day, you can watch the movie for 20 minutes. This connects \”learning English boringly\” and \”watching movies happily\” together. The better they learn, the more content they can understand, and the higher their interest in learning. CCTV recommends over 500 high-scoring excellent documentaries. Children will become addicted to self-discipline after watching them. 2. Scientific repetition is the secret of memory. If you are really not interested in the content of the study, you can also use a lot of repetition to stimulate the hippocampus. . Under the constant impact of information, the hippocampus will think that this information is related to survival, and will store it as long-term memory. The secret to memory, therefore, ultimately lies in repetition. Of course, there are techniques to repetition, that is, review. Such as review time. According to the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, after learning, the forgetting speed is very fast initially, and then gradually becomes slower. If you don\’t review quickly on the same day, you will only be able to remember one-third of the original knowledge one day later. Therefore, developing a good habit of reviewing what you have learned during the day before going to bed can produce twice the result with half the effort, and you will also receive the memory blessing of the hippocampus during your sleep. The quality and content of review are also important. You must ensure that you are equally attentive every time you review. Don\’t stop taking it seriously just because you feel you have learned and mastered it. Otherwise, the hippocampus will feel that the content is not important, which will reduce the memory effect. The content reviewed each time should be basically the same and should not differ too much, otherwise the hippocampus will judge it as new information and re-memorize and filter it. whenOf course, there is no conflict between learning new knowledge and reviewing. In a day\’s study plan, we must not only learn new knowledge, but also review content. You also need to be able to apply what you have learned. \”Use output to force input\”, when a knowledge point is finally used, it is the best time for the hippocampus to be activated. In the learning process, we can let children act as \”little teachers\”, repeating what they have learned and memorized, and teaching it to others. You can also consolidate the learning content and deepen your memory through parent-child discussions and writing output. 3. Move your body to make your brain think quickly. There is a special brain wave in the brain, which stimulates the hippocampus, improves memory efficiency, and can also enhance the brain\’s creativity. However, this brain wave doesn\’t appear all the time: it appears when you study something of interest; it also appears when your brain senses movement. From an evolutionary perspective, this is a long-term hunting life that has allowed the human brain to evolve the ability to think quickly during chases. Therefore, we can encourage children to memorize while shaking their heads, pace back and forth while reciting, or recite while walking outdoors. The brain science principle behind this is to create conditions for the brain to feel movement and improve learning efficiency. 4. Maintain a moderate sense of hunger. Finally, the sense of hunger will actually change the activity of the brain. When you are hungry, your stomach secretes a ghrelin, which causes the neurons in the hippocampus to produce long-term potentiation, making the brain\’s memory center more active and stable. On the contrary, after eating, the level of ghrelin decreases, and the blood is relatively concentrated in the stomach and intestines, which often leads to a decrease in brain activity level. This is why people feel sleepy once they are full. Therefore, we must make good use of the time before meals. For example, breakfast can be arranged after the child\’s morning reading, and the moderate hunger before breakfast can be used to improve the recitation efficiency of morning reading. Today is International Sleep Day, and the importance of sleep is increasingly recognized. Doudehui believes that a series of brain science principles about sleep and learning will help us better understand the reasons behind children\’s behaviors and achieve targeted results.