Real-time like the "ghost blade" like parents who want to let their children VS sleep, what to do?

The number of primary and middle school students staying up late is increasing.

　コロナ禍の影響で、小中学生の「夜更かし」が進み、結果的に睡眠時間が減少していることを示すデータがある。大阪府堺市教育委員会が2020年12月に行った、小４～中２の約34,000人を対象とする調査結果だ。

　「午後11時までに就寝する」と回答した割合は、中学2年 33.2％（前年より4.5ポイント減）、中学1年 48.3％（前年より5.2ポイント減）と、前年より減少していたという。小６～小４でも同じ傾向がみられ、学年が上がるほど減少幅が大きくなる傾向があった。

　To investigate the reason, it should be said that there is still a habit of playing mobile phones and games until late at night. In addition, since October 10, the popular TV animation "Ghost Blade" Infinite Train will be broadcast on Fuji TV at 23:15 every Sunday.

　It is said that recently children don't watch TV, but in order to keep up with the topics of school and friends, many children actually watch it.

Why is it bad to stay up late

10代～20代前半では、特に男性は夜型傾向が強い。朝起きられないことで遅刻が続くと、不登校につながりやすくなる。学校の朝の始業時間は早いので、寝つくのが遅いとどうしても睡眠不足となり、集中力がなくなり成績も下がってくる。子どもの睡眠不足は、忘れ物やうっかりミスといった不注意や、落ち着きのなさやかんしゃくなど、情緒不安定の要因となる。食生活も夜型化し、寝る前の食事や間食の増加で、肥満にもなりやすくなる。

　In the case of obvious disorders in school and home life, the sleep disorder of "sleep awakening phase retrograde disorder" was diagnosed. The typical pattern is to fall asleep from 2pm to 5am and get up in the afternoon.

　In the survey of children and adolescence, the prevalence rate of "sleep and awakening phase retrograde disorder" reached 7-16%, which can be said to be not uncommon sleep disorder.

Why do you want to become night owls?　

　Melatonin is a neurohormone secreted in the middle of the night, which can stabilize sleep and adjust the biological clock. When exposed to bright light after dusk, young people make melatonin secretion, which starts later, weaker and slower.

　Blue light from LED screens such as smartphones has a strong inhibitory effect on melatonin. Children bathe in the light such as TV and smartphone at night, which is one of the reasons for getting worse sleep and lighter sleep.

　子どもの場合、大人と比べて瞳孔が大きいこともあり、光の影響を大人より受けやすくなる。「メラトニン」分泌が光によって減る程度は、子どもでは大人の約2倍になることが示されている[2]。

　In the coronal disaster, online teaching may not be as popular as college students among primary and secondary school students. However, reduced time for sports and community activities, scattered schooling, reduced conversations and games between friends, and a decline in daytime activities are also the main reasons for the disordered pace of life, which is easy to become night owls.

Three basic countermeasures to stay up late

　Professor Alice Gregory of the School of Psychology at the University of London Golden Smith is herself an expert in sleep science and psychology with parenting troubles. In a recent book by Professor Gregory, perhaps the author's own ideas are particularly devoted to the sleep of children and parents, interspersed with scientific evidence while telling the experiences of herself and the people she meets [3].

　Accordingly, there are three basic ways to deal with children staying up late:

1. Fully bathed in the morning light

　Open the curtains in the morning and bask in the sun.

2. Avoid the light before going to bed

　To weaken the lighting at night, try to use a slightly darker warm color system of lighting. The use of smartphones and tablets has also decreased.

3. Exercise during the day

　Exercise moderately during the day and adjust the rhythm of the body. If possible, it is best to exercise in the wild in the sun.

　I'm afraid this is the knowledge I've heard, but it's a habit I want to reconfirm. However, even if you know this kind of knowledge, there will be many situations that "can't go as smoothly as doctors and scholars say", such as failure to get your child to fall asleep early.

　Professor Gregory is also keenly aware of the contrast between theory and reality, saying that sleep education, which will be discussed later, is very important. In parallel with Professor Gregory's advice, he considered some countermeasures to cater to modern times.

There is no TV in the bedroom. Pay attention to the use of streaming media

　テレビ離れが進んでいるとはいえ、現在でも依然としてテレビは影響力の大きいメディアである。当然のことに思われるだろうが、寝室にはテレビを置くべきではない。自分の部屋にテレビがある幼稚園児は、ない子どもよりも睡眠の質が劣ることが研究で明らかになっている[4]。親と一緒に寝ている場合は、寝室にもテレビを置いている家庭もあるかもしれないが、寝室で「鬼滅の刃」をみたあとは、眠りにくくなるのも無理はないだろう。

　When you hear the broadcast late on Sunday night, you will first think: "just record it and watch it." Or, "just look at the time you like on the streaming media". If it is the modern network society, consider it first. I also recommend watching it at a later time on a portal that you can watch on demand, rather than in the late hours of Sunday night. It is worth mentioning that "Ghost Blade" corresponds to many streaming services.

However, to say that everything is solved through streaming services implies the danger of making the problem serious. Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, asserts that "sleep is the biggest competitor (we're competing with sleep)". The American Sleep Medical Association, a user of streaming services, issued a responsible statement about reading works in one breath.

　Some people, including me, may have the experience of seeing a series of products late at night in a streaming service. The American Sleep Medical Association just recommended some tricks such as streaming media without using smartphones to watch on TV, but actually lost temptation and so on. Unfortunately, there are no effective solutions and restraining measures.

Socialize with partners of "sleep habits"

　With regard to popular TV programs, there are also "want live" requirements, rather than video and streaming services. This is because I can't keep up with the topic of school the next day. In the era when television is the center of community topics, although it is an increasingly outdated custom, popular programs can still become a good topic.

　If you can't keep up with the topic, you will be left out, and friends will become unhappy. For this reason, there are children who want to watch it at that time anyway. From this point of view, it is very doubtful to set the broadcast time period late on Sunday night, and there is also a side to the selfish judgment of adults such as "can also be seen on the Internet".

最近の研究では、青年期には友人が睡眠習慣に影響を与える重要な存在であることがわかってきている。タバコや酒、ドラッグを悪友から教わるのと同じように、健康習慣も仲間うちの相互の影響を受ける。睡眠習慣ももちろんその一つで、良い習慣も悪い習慣も、仲間のうちで拡散される[5]。

　Therefore, instead of dating a partner such as "what, didn't you watch TV last night", it is better to associate with a partner who "let's talk about it after watching it in a streaming service" is healthier and mentally better.

Recommendation of "Sleep Education"

　Education is very important. I think it is very important to talk about sleep and body rhythm from children. A down-to-earth thing, however, is an effort related to the increase of "good partners".

　子どもには、「鬼滅の刃」やアクション系のような興奮させるような内容よりは、退屈なくらいのんびりしたコンテンツのほうが、寝る前には望ましいことは伝えてもいいだろう。対象となる年齢は低くなるかもしれないが、眠りにとってよい絵本がある。スウェーデンの作家、カール＝ヨハン・エリーンによる「おやすみ，ロジャー」（飛鳥新社、2015年）はベストセラーとなったが、「あくびおじさん」とか「ウトウトフクロウ」といったゆるいキャラクターが登場する。

The aforementioned Professor Gregory has also sold a comic book called "melancholy ~ A picture book that makes you drowsy by just reading" (Kan, 2015).

For the purpose of sleep education, "Maosujun is sleeping." (Ribble, 2021) is an interesting picture book to learn the importance of sleep.

　I first mentioned that young people have many night owls, but we already know that the early start of school is also a distant cause of children's lack of sleep. According to a report from the Rand Institute in the United States (2017), if the school year starts later than 8:30 or later, it may have both health and economic benefits [6].

　He predicts that the US economy will benefit as much as $83 billion over a decade, thanks to increased sleep and fewer accidents, resulting in improved academic performance. In Japan, there is a lot of opposition from all sides to the postponement of the start of school. I am afraid it is very difficult at present, but in order to improve the health of children, please do some research.

[this article is Yahoo! This is the content jointly planned by the news individual editorial department and the owner, written by the owner]

1. Nesbitt AD. Delayed sleep-wake phase disorder. J Thorac Dis. 2018; 10(Suppl 1): S103–S111. doi: 10.21037/jtd.2018.01.11.
2. Higuchi S et al. Influence of light at night on melatonin suppression in children. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2014;99(9):3298-303. doi: 10.1210/jc.2014-1629.
3. アリス・グレゴリー. 「英国式 科学が実証する睡眠の技術 人生を最高にする眠り方」. (日向やよい 訳、西多昌規 監訳). ニュートンプレス（2021年11月発売予定)
4. Cespedes EM et al. Television Viewing, Bedroom Television, and Sleep Duration From Infancy to Mid-Childhood. Pediatrics. 2014; 133(5): e1163–e1171. doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-3998.
5. McMakin DL et al. The impact of experimental sleep restriction on affective functioning in social and nonsocial contexts among adolescents. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2016;57(9):1027-37. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12568.
6. Hafner M et al. Later School Start Times in the U.S. An Economic analysis. RAND, 2017, Cambridge. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR2100/RR2109/RAND_RR2109.pdf