Education in Front-Line and Essays by Hiroshi Hayashi (はやし浩司)

(Mr.) Hiroshi Hayashi, a professional writer who has written more than 30 his own books on Education, Chinese Medical science and Religion in Japan. My web-site is: http://www2.wbs.ne.jp/~hhayashi/ Please don't hesitate to visit my web-site, which is always welcome!!

Friday, May 20, 2011

●睡眠不足と子供の肥満   ●年長児の知能教育

【National Public Radio(USA)の記事より】

●子どもの睡眠時間と肥満

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Kids who don't get enough sleep face a greater risk of being overweight or obese. But being overweight could also be causing the sleep problems, making it hard for children to stay awake and alert during the day.
じゅうぶんな睡眠時間をとっていない子どもは、肥満あるいは体重超過の危険と直面することになる。また体重超過は、睡眠障害を引き起こす。たとえば日中、眠気に襲われたりする。

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University were looking for risk factors for daytime sleepiness in kids. To their surprise, they found that sleep-disordered breathing, a common problem that can range from snoring all the way up to sleep apnea, wasn't the biggest risk factor.
日中、眠気を催す子どもについて、ペンシルバニア州立大学の研究によれば、驚いたことに、いびきなどの睡眠呼吸障害などは、それほど深刻な問題ではないことがわかった。

Instead, it was obesity, followed by mood disorders like anxiety and depression, and asthma.
そのかわり、不安やうつ(気分の落ち込み)のような、気分障害による肥満や、ぜんそくが原因であることがわかった。

That's a bit of a wake-up call to parents, because sleep-disordered breathing is often cited as a cause of ADHD-like behavior problems in children, based on the notion that a sleepy kid can't pay attention in school.
日中眠気に襲われる子どもは、集中力に欠けるということもあり、睡眠時呼吸障害が、たとえばADHD児の原因として考えられることもある。

The most common treatment: tonsillectomy. A sleep-disordered breathing diagnosis is now the most common reason for tonsillectomy in children.
もっともありふれた治療法としての扁桃腺摘出手術:
睡眠時呼吸障害が診断されると、子どものばあい、扁桃腺摘出手術が、もっともありふれた治療法となっている。

But tonsillectomy isn't without its risks, says sleep specialist Edward Bixler, a professor of psychiatry at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He's one of the authors of this new study, published in the current issue of Sleep.
しかし扁桃腺摘出手術では、ない。

There's considerable research linking lack of sleep in young children and adults to increased weight.
子どもに限らずおとなも、睡眠不足と体重増加には、有意の関連性がみられる。

For example, infants and toddlers who slept less than 10 hours a night were more likely to become overweight or obese within 5 years, according to a report last fall from researchers at the University of Washington.
たとえばワシントン大学の研究によれば、睡眠時間が10時間以下の幼児は、5年以内に体重増加になりがちであることがわかっている。

Naps don't make up the sleep deficit. Another 2010 study found that teenage boys who stayed up late playing video games or texting were more likely to be overweight or obese. But sleep had little effect on weight for girls.
昼寝をしたからといって、睡眠に悪影響を与えるわけではない。
2010年の研究によれば、夜遅くまで起き、テレビゲームをしたり試験勉強をしている子どもは、体重増加や肥満になる傾向がみられる。
が、女子のばあい、睡眠は、ほんとど体重には影響を与えない。

But quite a few of those studies rely on self-reports of sleep, or reports by parents. They can be subjective. Bixler's group observed the children overnight in a sleep lab.
多くは親からの報告などであったりして、主観的なものである。
そこでBixlerたちは、睡眠研究所で、子どもの観察をした。

They also arranged for extensive medical workups. Of the 508 children ages 5 to 12 years old, 15 percent of them had "excessive daytime sleepiness."
日中眠気を訴える5歳から12歳までの、508人の子どもについて、集中的に観察した。

That was most strongly associated with being overweight or obese. Kids taking asthma meds, those reported to be anxious or depressed by a parent, and those said to have trouble sleeping at night by their parents were also risk factors.
これらの子どもは、かなり体重超過と肥満傾向をともなっていた。
ぜんそくの薬を服用している子どもは、睡眠障害を起こしやすい。
その原因として、両親による不安や抑鬱感、また両親による睡眠障害なども報告されている。

So which comes first, the weight problem or the sleep problem? That's impossible to know from this study, because it didn't look at cause and effect.
それ故に、どちらが先か。
体重問題か、睡眠障害か。
この研究では、どちらが先かということは言えない。
なぜならそれは双方ともに、原因であり、結果であるからである。

But it does suggest that parents might want to first consider weight loss, adjusting asthma meds, and treating a child's mood problems before getting a tonsillectomy.
しかしつぎのことは言える。
子どもの肥満を解決しようとしたら、ぜんそく治療を考え、扁桃腺摘出手術を考える前に、子どもの(心の問題=MOOD)を治療すべきということになる。

"Sleepiness in children I'm sure is a very complicated factor, we're only touching on some of the issues here," Bixler told Shots. "A whole lot of things can influence your sleep. It's an extremely sensitive marker, but it's not very specific." In other words: "It doesn't tell you what the problem is. But it's clearly a red flag."
子どもの眠気は、複雑な要素が重なって引き起こされる。
日常のすべてのことが、睡眠に影響を与える。
眠気は、あくまでも結果。
言い換えると、それが問題というのではなく、それは何らかの病気の赤信号ということになる。


Hiroshi Hayashi+++++++May. 2011++++++はやし浩司・林浩司

●The Other Big Deficit: Many Teens Fall Short On Sleep
もうひとつの大きな睡眠問題:10代の多くの子どもは、睡眠不足である。


The typical high school senior gets less than seven hours of sleep on school nights. But teenagers need a great deal more.

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The typical high school senior gets less than seven hours of sleep on school nights. But teenagers need a great deal more.
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May 16, 2011
Most high school students are chronically tired. They juggle school, sports, homework, chores, friends and family.
To meet all of these demands, surveys show, high schoolers usually stay up close to midnight on school nights. And then they have to get up early the next morning, typically around 6 or 6:30 a.m., to get to school on time, as most high schools start classes around 7:30 a.m.
By Friday, most teens are very tired, says Dr. Helene Emsellem, a sleep researcher with George Washington University in Washington, D.C. And then comes the weekend.
Submit Your Sleep Questions
Got questions about teens and sleep? Submit them in the comments section at the bottom of this page by Tuesday at noon EDT. We'll pose some of them to Dr. Helene Emsellem and other sleep experts. Come back to NPR.org on Thursday to read their responses.
"Every parent of a teenager knows that if you try to get them up in the morning on the weekends, they're tired, grouchy, irritable and not the charming individuals that they're capable of being, because they're so exhausted," says Emsellem, a neurologist who also runs the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Md.
She says the typical high school senior gets less than seven hours of sleep on school nights. But they need a great deal more.
Growth Spurts Call For Sleep
"Most studies show a fairly consistent 9 1/4 hours sleep requirement," says Emsellem. "So there's a huge gap between what they're getting on an average school night and what they require."
An adolescent's biology bears some of the blame for this sleep problem. As teens progress through puberty, unprecedented growth occurs in body and brain that requires a lot of sleep.
In addition, something else is changing: The very brain chemical that makes one feel sleepy — a hormone called melatonin — is released later and later in the evening as teens get older.
Because of this shift in the onset of melatonin, teenagers don't feel sleepy until later at night, says Stephanie Crowley, a sleep researcher at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
"A 16- or 17-year-old might be able to stay awake later compared to a 10-year-old who will likely fall asleep on the couch watching TV," Crowley explains.
Accruing A 'Sleep Debt'
Most studies show a fairly consistent 9 1/4 hours sleep requirement. So there's a huge gap between what they're getting on an average school night and what they require.
- Helene Emsellem, neurologist at George Washington University and medical director of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders
When a teen's propensity to fall asleep later is coupled with the early-to-rise school start times, most high school students end up accruing a "sleep debt" of five to 10 hours by the end of a school week.
And teenagers' typical habits on the weekend create even more chaos in their sleep-wake cycle.
"What the majority of adolescents do is they will try to recover their sleep on the weekends," Crowley observes. "And what usually will happen is they'll stay up late to socialize with friends and then sleep in in the morning."
But this sleep-wake pattern makes things worse for the teen, not better, Emsellem says.
"Even if you catch up by sleeping in late on your weekend mornings," she says, "by doing so, it makes it harder for you to fall asleep by 10 or 10:30 on Sunday night. And you start all over again, sleep restricted."
But Emsellem offers some suggestions for the weekends, based on her sleep research in the lab — and her personal experience of raising three daughters.
"As a parent myself, I feel like a criminal if I ask them to get up at 7:30 or 8 in the morning. But I do try to get them up by 9. And I encourage them to get some activity and some light exposure in the morning," she says.
Let There Be Not Much Light At Night
Light, Emsellem says, is a "drug that promotes wakefulness" in the morning, in the same way that darkness can promote sleep at night. In the evening, she recommends dimming and even turning off some lights in the house to minimize light exposure.
The teen should also try to make the transition to sleep time by taking a warm shower or doing some gentle stretching. Emsellem suggests that there be a lights-out time in the teen's bedroom during the school week and that they try to stick with it.
But if the teenager gets into bed and turns out the lights but cannot sleep, Emsellem says, just lying there in bed doing nothing is just as frustrating for the teen as it is for an adult. In that case, electronics can be helpful if used carefully — for example, soothing music or an audio book. But she suggests limiting such sleep aids to 30 minutes.

Making The Case For Sleep
Emsellem wants teenagers to understand what sleep does for them every night.
"I think it's important for teens to recognize that during the day, they're gathering information," she says. "But they're really not learning it till they sleep on it."
Another tip for teens: no caffeine — including chocolate — after midafternoon. Emsellem says caffeine stays in a teen's system for at least six hours.
Experts also recommend naps. Over the weekend, an hour or so can help a teen catch up on sleep. During the school week, naps should be short — 20 to 30 minutes — and are best taken during study hall or a break before midafternoon. Otherwise, they could interfere with nighttime sleep.
Naps can be particularly helpful when teens have a test in the afternoon. "Studies have shown they'll do better on their test with a nap midday," Emsellem says.
There's another advantage to an early afternoon nap: Teens will then have more energy and concentration to power through homework later in the evening.

【以上、National Public Radio(USA)の記事より】

(はやし浩司 家庭教育 育児 教育評論 幼児教育 子育て Hiroshi Hayashi 林浩司 BW はやし浩司 子どもの睡眠障害 居眠り 眠気 体重超過 肥満 睡眠と肥満 肥満と睡眠 睡眠障害と喘息 ぜんそく はやし浩司 子供の睡眠 肥満)


Hiroshi Hayashi+++++++May. 2011++++++はやし浩司・林浩司

【年長児(大半が5歳児)・数の遊び】

新年長児に、数(1~100)を教えてみました。年長児だから、順に簡単なところから……というような考え方は、おかしいですね。子どもたちのもつ知識欲とエネルギー。そういうことも、このビデオを通して、知っていただければ、うれしいです。5歳という新年長児を、50分前後のレッスンに引きつけておくのは、たいへんなことです。リズミカルに、テンポの速いレッスンに心がけました。大切なことは、子どもたちの頭を「熱くすること」。それがそのまま知能教育につながります。


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(はやし浩司 2011-05-20)

(はやし浩司 家庭教育 育児 教育評論 幼児教育 子育て Hiroshi Hayashi 林浩司 BW はやし浩司 年長児 幼児 幼児教室 幼児教育 知恵 知能教室 はやし浩司 知能教育)


Hiroshi Hayashi+++++++May. 2011++++++はやし浩司・林浩司