Wake-up call for the schoolchildren who don't get enough sleep

In what's thought to be a unique project, Glasgow City Council has called in a sleep counsellor to run a pilot scheme, working at four secondary schools in the city to give instructions on how to wind down, relax and drop off. The lessons are run by the charity Sleep Scotland, whose director Jane Ansell is calling on the Scottish government to fund the training of more sleep counsellors and the growing problem of youngsters who are not functioning at school through lack of proper rest.

"Children need sleep to reach their full potential," she says. "You wouldn't send someone to school without having the right amount of food, so why would you send them without enough sleep?" While some young people might take a macho attitude the fact that they somehow survive on a few short hours' sleep, they are actually damaging their health, their learning potential and their future prospects.

Neuroscientists and physiologists have established that it is during sleep that the brain rewires and consolidates the memory. If a child is sleep deprived, then they are unable to concentrate and their brain does not work to its full capacity.

Research carried out by the University of Minnesota discovered that A-grade teenagers had on average 15 minutes more sleep than those attaining B-grades, and in turn this group slept an average of 11 minutes more a night than those with C-grades. A study done at Edinburgh University made a link between lack of sleep and poor diet and verbally and physically aggressive behaviour in schools.

"When you are feeling tired small things that you would normally have ignored start to irritate and upset you," says Prof Pamela Munn, co-author of the research. "Schools giving lessons about relaxation and sleeping would be very helpful in reducing the levels of these incidents." Sleep deprivation is also associated with higher levels of obesity and depression, with a 71 per cent higher risk of depression among teenagers who sleep less than five hours compared to those sleeping for eight hours.

Jane Ansell has seen sleep deprived youngsters misdiagnosed with other conditions, such as autistic spectrum conditions or mild attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). As many as 20 per cent of those diagnosed with mild ADHD are actually suffering from sleep deprivation, although they show the same sort of symptoms.

So what causes sleeplessness in the young? One factor is thought to be pressure on children to perform well academically, and another is that in some families where both parents work full-time, children can be kept up later in order to have time with mum and dad. However, the factor researchers see as perhaps the biggest barrier to relaxation and sleep is the plethora of gadgets children and teenagers have around them, often in their bedroom.

You have to wonder what use teaching relaxation techniques will be if parents don't impose a regular and reasonable bed time or police the night-time use of computers, games consoles and mobile phones in the very young, says Prof Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University.

"Children of nine to 14 need at least nine or 10 hours' sleep. During puberty, the brain undergoes reorganisation during sleep so more sleep is required. Without it they will get sleepy and bad-tempered during the day. Younger ones need more like 12 hours sleep and being allowed to stay up too late can mean they get overtired, over-excited and unable to sleep.

"I wonder whether schools shouldn't be talking to the parents rather than the pupils. In the younger ones, taking away or restricting use of games consoles and computers after a certain time is essential, and at least an hour before bedtime. That hour should be spent doing something gentle and unexciting, so that they are not over-stimulated but wind down instead.

"With older teenagers, perhaps the way to get through to them about the value of sleep and its importance for health, well-being, academic performance and opportunities in life might be to get a celebrity role model to drive the message home. It's not something they really listen to when parents or teachers say it."

Is lack of sleep endemic in our society as a whole, especially now that many workforces have slimmed down, leaving fewer staff doing more work – which could potentially lead to stress and wakefulness?

"Children are getting less sleep, but no, there's no evidence that adults are sleeping less than they did years ago, partly because working hours are actually shorter and more regulated," says Prof Horne. "If we think sleep deprivation is a widespread problem it could simply be because people are more forthcoming about such things these days. Years ago people didn't talk so openly about how they were feeling.

"In one study of people who said they'd like more sleep, when asked

what they would do if they had an extra hour to themselves each day, only one in five said they would use it to sleep. That's the proof of the pudding."