Home Schooling, Online Classes ensures Quality Life for Teen Students
According to a study conducted by the university of Zurich, the home-schooling era had both beneficial and bad consequences on the health and well-being of many youngsters. The findings were reported in the "JAMA Network Open Journal." "During the lockdown, pupils received around 75 minutes extra sleep every day." At the same time, their health-related quality of life increased dramatically, and their intake of alcohol and caffeine decreased," said Oskar Jenni, a UZH researcher of developmental paediatrics and one of the study's co-leaders. They were able to sleep in later as they no more had to commute to school.
During the shutdown, the scientists conducted an online poll with 3,664 high school students in the Canton of Zurich, inquiring about their sleeping habits and overall quality of life. They then compared the responses to those from a 2017 poll of 5,308 young people. The findings revealed that during the three months when schools were shut, teenagers awoke 90 minutes later on school days but went to bed just 15 minutes later on average, resulting in a 75-minute gain in total sleep per day. On weekends, there was minimal variation in the two groups' sleep schedules.
"Although the lockdown definitely harmed many young people's health and well-being, our data suggest a benefit of the school closures that has received little attention until now," Jenni added. Sleep deprivation in teens can result in feelings of exhaustion, worry, and physical illnesses. This, in turn, has a negative impact on cognitive processes including concentration, recollection, and attentiveness, making it much more difficult to function in daily life.