"If only I had slept an hour more!", a very recurrent statement, and indeed true according to science: sleep, besides being a natural activity, is closely related to the enhancement of other cognitive functions such as learning, concentration and attention, but also to the maintenance of psycho-emotional and relational balance. This applies as much to adults as to adolescents, in whom the obligation to get up early in the morning is often associated with a delay in falling asleep at night.

For several years now, studies have been carried out all over the world on how entering the classroom later than usual might affect the health and learning capacity of young people. The first Italian project was developed by a team of researchers led by Luigi De Gennaro of the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome and the headmaster Salvatore Giuliano, a former undersecretary at the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, and involved students from the Istituto Ettore Majorana in Brindisi. The results of the pilot study, which lasted an entire school year, have been published on the journal Nature and Science of Sleep.

"The idea behind the study was that by delaying school entry we would allow for more sleep, which in turn would affect levels of alertness and thus improve attention," says Luigi De Gennaro. Thanks to the support of the Istituto Majorana, in the school-year 2018-19 we involved first-year high school students in the experimental study and divided them into two groups: throughout the year one group of students entered at the usual time, at 8.00 am, and another entered an hour later (at 9.00 am). In both groups, we monitored sleep characteristics and performance during the day every month through specific attention tests."

The results of the work confirmed the researchers' expectations regarding the performance of the students and the effects of the delayed timetable on health. In particular, an increase in sleep time and a decrease in sleep disruption was observed, associated with a steady improvement in attention during school hours and a marked increase in performance.

"An important detail," adds De Gennaro," is that during the school holidays there were no differences in sleep between the two groups, confirming that the effects of increased sleep are closely dependent on the late start of lessons. Moreover, the fact that the bedtime did not differ allowed us to demolish the limitations of the programme, such as the possibility, often raised as a criticism, that a delayed entry to school could be associated with a delay in falling asleep in the evening as well."

The implications of this work open up new perspectives for renewing school organisation, particularly in this period of COVID-19 pandemic, with a view to developing strategies to combat its spread.

"One only needs to think about transport which is key for avoiding crowds at school entry and exit times," concludes De Gennaro. By using easy tests, we could identify the chronotype, the biological rhythm of the students, and divide them into different slots with differentiated timetables, making those who perform best in the morning enter earlier. This would be rational and useful for both middle and high schools."

References:

The Association Between School Start Time and Sleep Duration, Sustained Attention, and Academic Performance – Valentina Alfonsi, Rossella Palmizio, Annalisa Rubino, Serena Scarpelli, Maurizio Gorgoni,Aurora D’Atri, Mariella Pazzaglia, Michele Ferrara, Salvatore Giuliano and Luigi De Gennaro – Nature and Science of Sleep, 2020. https://doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S273875

Further Information

Luigi De Gennaro
Department of Psychology 
luigi.degennaro@uniroma1.it