Homework, off-campus training and games should make way for students’ sleep.

　　Recently, the General Office of the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Sleep Management of Primary and Secondary School Students (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), further emphasizing the need to ensure adequate sleep time for students and refining relevant management measures. The "Notice" requires that students’ sleep monitoring and supervision should be strengthened, students’ sleep status should be included in the physical health monitoring and education quality evaluation and monitoring system, included in the scope of daily supervision and the supervision and evaluation of the government’s performance of educational duties, and a supervision and reporting telephone or network platform should be set up to ensure that the requirements are in place and effectively ensure students’ good sleep.

　　We should fully improve our understanding of the importance of sleep health.

　　The Notice puts forward three "important times". The first is the necessary sleep time. Primary school students should sleep for 10 hours a day, junior high school students should sleep for 9 hours and senior high school students should sleep for 8 hours. The second is the school schedule. Class starts at 8: 20 in the morning in primary schools and 8: 00 in middle schools. At the same time, it is emphasized that schools should not require students to arrive at school in advance, and necessary lunch breaks should be guaranteed if conditions permit. The third is bedtime at night. Pupils are generally not later than 21: 20, junior high school students are generally not later than 22: 00, and senior high school students are generally not later than 23: 00. At the same time, guide parents and students, make schedules for students’ work and rest, promote autonomous management, work and rest regularly, and go to bed on time. Only by controlling the school schedule and students’ bedtime at night can students’ necessary sleep time be effectively guaranteed.

　　Lv Yugang, director of the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education, pointed out that schools can manage the morning classes. The more important time is bedtime at night. Some bad living habits, such as watching mobile phones, playing computers and indulging in the Internet, affect students’ bedtime. Whether you can sleep at night depends on the students’ self-management ability and the guidance, cooperation and consultation between parents and students. In this process, we should strengthen the education of students, strengthen the guidance of parents, and strive to ensure that the bedtime at night can be achieved.

　　Zhu Dongbin, deputy director of the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education, said that places and schools with conditions should guarantee students the necessary lunch break. We also encourage all localities and schools to explore all kinds of good experiences and practices that help students sleep according to the actual situation and school facilities. Sleep is a big event, and we should be able to reach a consensus that we should not lose big because of small things, let alone give up the basics.

　　Jiang Fan, secretary of the Party Committee of Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, director of the Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Children’s Sleep Disorders, and head of the Children’s Sleep Study Group of the Sleep Medicine Committee of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, said: The majority of primary and secondary schools, teachers, parents and students should fully raise their awareness of the importance of sleep health, and enhance their understanding of the requirements of sleep time required by different age groups and healthy sleep habits. According to the Notice, the length of sleep students should get every day is consistent with the internationally recognized recommended length of sleep. This requirement is implemented on individuals, and parents also need to master individual differences. Primary school students need 9-12 hours of sleep every day, and middle school students need 8-10 hours. Teachers and parents can strengthen communication with their children, work out schedules suitable for individual students together, and at the same time, they can know whether they sleep well or not from the aspects of children’s mental state and self-feeling, and make adjustments to the schedules according to the actual situation.

　　Sacrificing sleep time for study can’t be exchanged for improving academic performance.

　　In view of the external factors affecting students’ sleep, the Notice puts forward three "interruption mechanisms", requiring homework, off-campus training and games to make way for students’ sleep.

　　The first is the "interruption" of homework, which requires primary school students to basically complete their written homework in school, and middle school students to complete most of their written homework in school. If individual students have not finished their homework by bedtime after efforts, parents should urge them to go to bed on time and not stay up late to ensure adequate sleep. Of course, teachers should conduct targeted analysis, strengthen counseling, and adjust the content and amount of homework if necessary. The second is the "interruption" of off-campus training time, which requires that the off-campus offline training end time should not be later than 20: 30, and the online live training end time should not be later than 21: 00. Homework should not be arranged in any form such as pre-class preparation, after-class consolidation, homework practice, and WeChat group punching. The third is the "interruption" of the game, which requires local education departments to strengthen supervision with relevant departments in accordance with their management authority to ensure that no game services are provided to minors from 22: 00 to 8: 00 the next day.

　　Lv Yugang said that schools should have a sound homework management mechanism, and all subject groups should co-ordinate homework, so as to grasp a reasonable amount of homework and improve the quality of homework. Students should not be allowed to finish their homework during recess when they should go out for activities and skip around the playground, or during the lunch break. Schools and teachers should strengthen the guidance for students to complete their homework, especially to help students with learning difficulties, and increase the intensity of counseling and answering questions so that students can complete their homework within the specified time.

　　Lu Haifeng, director of the Education and Sports Bureau of Qidong City, Jiangsu Province, reminded schools to avoid the thinking mode of split thinking and binary opposition, and make efforts to properly handle several groups of relationships. The first is the relationship between "sleeping less" and "sleeping late" and "getting up early". According to the requirements of the Notice, schools should reasonably determine the schedule of work and rest, enhance the soft power in the publicity of work and rest, and enhance the hard power in the implementation of work and rest, and do not artificially require students to arrive at school in advance, and do not artificially occupy students’ school time. At the same time, they should be flexible and flexible in strictly implementing work and rest, for example, properly resettle individual students who arrive at school in advance due to special family circumstances; The second is the relationship between "less sleep" and "more homework" and "difficult homework". Schools should make great efforts in classroom research and win the light burden of schoolwork with the high efficiency of classroom; Pay attention to homework management and win the light load of homework with the high quality of design; The third is the relationship between "sleeping well" and "sleeping well" and "growing well". Schools should face students face to face, educate students to understand the importance of adequate sleep and develop good sleep habits. Heart-to-heart with parents to guide parents to be the guarantors of their children’s adequate sleep; Join hands with the society and participate in the governance of off-campus training institutions as much as possible to reduce the academic burden of students.

　　At the same time, Jiang Fan said that parents should take appropriate restrictions on children’s use of electronic products, and at the same time, they should set an example and consciously maintain a good work and rest, so that children can clearly understand the importance of sleep and develop a good habit of maintaining regular work and rest independently. Their team research shows that sacrificing sleep time for study can not bring about improvement in academic performance, but will cause extensive damage to executive function and affect the academic performance of children and adolescents. (Guangming Daily reporter Yan Xiaoyan)