by Genar Tacay
Sleeping is one of the most important activity the human body needs in all of its metabolic processes. It allows the organs and tissues to rest in preparation for another working activity. However, not all human bodies have the same schedule of sleeping relative to the type of work the body engages in. Lack of sleep or over sleeping also affects how the body functions, especially in succeeding activites. In schools where the learners engage in the work of acquiring knowledge, sleeping is very important.
School attendance is a factor dependent on sleeping in order to attain academic success. A recent report found that short sleep duration was strongly associated with the likelihood of school absences. Several studies found out that early and lack of sleep are related to more frequent tardiness that lead to absences. In one study, even delaying starting time of sleeping from 8:00 AM to 8:55 AM, caused nearly a third of the students to report late due to oversleeping. That was in the 2 weeks before the survey (Wheaton, Chapman, & Croft, 2017).
Duration of sleep the night prior to an examination is also associated with academic performance as measured by grades in an academic school year. This finding is consistent with Medeirosetal’s research among medical students that found students who reported sleeping for longer durations obtained higher scores in examinations, as well as Veldi et al’s study whose findings state that sleep behaviors are associated with academic progress. Moreover, identical findings of decreased sleep duration associated with poor examination performance were found in Gruber et al’s study on children’s performance in IQ measurements. Furthermore, Perez-Lloret et al’s study on adolescents’ performance in mathematics and literature course work states that about 74% of respondents in the study agreed that sleep duration affects the performance of learners in competitions. (Zeek, M. L. et. al., 2015).
In the field of sports, the study of Lapena (2019) equates the performance of the athletes in a Special Program for Sports to sleep duration. It states that learners have various sleep duration, or that not all athletes have the same sleeping habits. The study presented that 55.10% agreed and about 20% strongly agreed that when the athletes sleep late they are bound to exhibit bad effects: Not in the mood to study, sleepy in class, inattentive and easily distracted, cannot finish the task given and bored when the teacher lectures are some of such effects. That is why coaches in the various fields of sports must see to it that athletes are well prepared and have had sufficient sleep prior to competitions.**
