Most primary and middle school students lack in sleep

Chinanews, Beijing, July 1 – A recent survey in Beijing shows that many primary and middle school students lack of sleep. “My child can only sleep for six hours a day,” some parents whose children were studying in a primary school in Beijing's Haidian District, recently told workers who conducted the survey. Han, a teacher of the school said their students usually arrived in their school at 7 o’clock in the morning and wouldn’t go to bed until 12 at night. According to a related document issued by the government, primary pupils should sleep for at least 10 hours a day, junior high school students for at least 9 hours and senior high students for no less than 8 hours. The State Council recently issued a document stipulating said that schools should guarantee their students sufficient time for both physical exercise and sleep. However, according to the survey, these requirements have not been met. For many students can’t get enough sleep because they have too much homework to do. Experts point out that lack of sleep will have very bad effects on students' health in the long run. A separate survey conducted among 20,000 students across China shows that if students don’t get enough sleep, they might not be able to concentrate on their work. Students’ memorizing capability, organizing skills, creativity and physical skills will all decline. They can hardly control themselves and willeasily become absent-minded. They will act more aggressively and easily get irritated. Sometimes their immune system, metabolic system and glandular system will be in disorder, which will cause obesity. The Ministry of Health and four other central government departments have recently carried out a joint survey about Chinese students’ health conditions. The survey shows that obesity rate among Chinese students has come near to the level of developed countries. Obesity problem is most serious in Beijing, Shanghai and other coastal cities, where 20.8% of the boys aged 7-18 have overweight problem and 12.3% of them have obesity problem. In addition, 11.3% of the girls are overweight and 6.6% of them suffer from obesity.