Cellphones can rob children of sleep

While parents and teachers now recognize the importance of sleep for children, that did not always happen in the past.

Too often, Chinese students were glued to their cellphones or buried in homework and tutoring classes, preventing them from getting enough sleep.

A survey of 572,314 fourth and eighth graders between 2015 and 2017 by the Ministry of Education showed that only 30 percent of fourth graders slept 10 hours or more and only 16.6 percent of eighth-grade students slept at least nine hours.

Many students were under great academic pressure and many had to spend hours on homework and tutoring classes every day, the survey said.

That's why the government has taken a host of measures since last year to ensure primary and secondary school students have enough sleep every day.

In February last year, the Ministry of Education banned all primary and secondary school students from bringing mobile phones to schools.

If the students bring their cellphone to school, they should hand them over to school officials for custody until school is over. The ministry also has asked schools to not assign homework via cellphones.

Meanwhile, in July 2021, the "double reduction" policy — reducing students' homework and after-school tutoring pressure was issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council.

The policy included a host of measures to free students from excessive academic burdens, from banning curriculum-based training on weekends and during national holidays and winter and summer vacations to reducing the amount and difficulty of homework.

The policies have worked. According to third-party surveys, 87.8 percent of students said their homework has been reduced considerably and more than 90 percent of students said they can finish it in a set time.

However, officials said some parents still find ways to get their children into tutoring courses or assign them extra homework themselves in hopes of better grades and a chance to attend top universities.

Staying up late to complete a heavy academic workload means students might feel moody, tired or cranky the next day, and school work that is normally easy may become difficult.

For adults, a lack of sleep often means low energy, slower thinking, reduced attention and worsened memory the next day. Young children who are in the process of growing need more sleep than adults and extra sleep is what their bodies require to grow and mature in a healthy way.