Replies - Student health

Later wake times good for schoolgoing children

We read with interest the article on giving children a later school start time (Time to give kids a later start each day, July 16).

The author highlighted that when school start times are delayed, resulting in more sleep time, schoolchildren benefit in several ways, including general well-being and better school performance.

She added that the Covid-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to look into delaying school start times, as there are now fewer barriers, such as traffic congestion, to implementing this, given the changes in work patterns as more people are working from home.

The Department of Paediatrics from Khoo Teck Puat-National University Children's Medical Institute at National University Hospital recently published a study on sleep duration among schoolgoing children in Singapore during last year's national circuit breaker after the Covid-19 pandemic started.

In our study, we surveyed 593 parents of schoolgoing children aged between three and 16 attending pre-school, primary and secondary schools in Singapore, comparing their children's sleep habits before and during the circuit breaker period.

The results were striking - with children waking up later during the circuit breaker (on average, 55 minutes later in the morning across all age groups compared with before the circuit breaker) due to enforced home-based learning, primary school children gained an extra 30 minutes of sleep on average, while secondary school children gained an extra 56 minutes of sleep on average compared with pre-pandemic times.

Over half the parents surveyed reported that their children slept better, felt more refreshed in the morning, were less tired in the day, and were more energetic because they had more sleep.

Therefore, the positive impact of later wake times on sleep duration in schoolgoing children cannot be ignored. Our findings from our own population of schoolgoing children in Singapore lend further support to the benefits of implementing later school start times.

Michael Lim Teik Chung (Dr)

Paediatric Research Team

Khoo Teck Puat-National University Children's Medical Institute

National University Hospital

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 24, 2021, with the headline Later wake times good for schoolgoing children. Subscribe