Nearly All US Teens Short On Sleep, Exercise (usnews.com)

UPI reports: Too little sleep. Not enough exercise. Far too much "screen time." That is the unhealthy lifestyle of nearly all U.S. high school students, new research finds. The study, of almost 60,000 teenagers nationwide, found that only 5 percent were meeting experts' recommendations on three critical health habits: sleep; exercise; and time spent gazing at digital media and television... "Five percent is a really low proportion," said study leader Gregory Knell, a research fellow at University of Texas School of Public Health, in Dallas. "We were a bit surprised by that...."

"If kids are viewing a screen at night -- staring at that blue light -- that may affect their ability to sleep," Knell said. "And if you're not getting enough sleep at night, you're going to be more tired during the day," he added, "and you're not going to be as physically active."
Experts recommend a minimum of 8 hours of sleep at night for teenagers, plus at least one hour every day of "moderate to vigorous" exercise.

One professor of adolescent medicine points out that some high school homework now even requires using a computer -- even though too much screen time can affect teenagers' abiity to sleep.

Comments

That's By Design

[dryriver]

Do you really think that corporations that wreck your privacy at every turn, even invent an "internet of extremely insecure things" for this very purpose, care whether you get diabetes, or suffer a stroke or a heart attack before you reach 50? They also don't care what happens to your eyesight, or your brain for that matter (hint hint: 5G communications). Oh look - genius Elon Musk shot his Tesla car into space!

This just in

[Kohath]

Schools don’t care. Schools care about payroll.

Re:This just in

[hey!]

My experience with my kids is that schools, teachers, administrators really do care about kids, but (a) there's a lot of kids to care about, (b) there's a lot of pressure to prepare kids for high stakes testing, and (c) they're swamped with kids whose families have big time drama like domestic violence and drug abuse.

I once had to call in a lawyer who specialized in educational law to issue some threats to the local school administrators. They weren't ill-intentioned people, they just let a certain situation get away from, panicked, and tried to take some dubious short cuts.

You can't expect administrators and teachers to be saints; they're ordinary people who really do care about kids, but they screw up sometimes and like most people try to rationalize it or sweep it under the rug.

This, by the way, is the proper way to use a lawyer. You use a lawyer to stay out of the courts.

Re: This just in

[c6gunner]

All students should have to go to public schools. Only then do students all get equivalent quality educations.

This is communism in a nutshell. Bring everyone down to the lowest level! Always willing to sacrifice progress at the altar of equality.

Re:And that's only part of the story.

[b0s0z0ku]

It's not even the parents' choice in many cases. There's a lot of pressure from society (God, I hate that stinking word). To live like the Joneses, you need two incomes in 2019, and American employers demand 50+ hour work weeks. I mean, you can get around this bullshit by having one income and living in a duplex, driving used cars, not buying electronics every year, but most people are too cowardly to not do what society and the advertisers tell them to.

Re:Extra-cirricular

[b0s0z0ku]

Live below their means. One income or one income and a part-time job. Get on ACA, take the subsidies, don't be too bourgeois to take advantage of Medicaid if needed any your state offers it. It's a public option, and most other civilized countries offer public insurance with no shame. Buy a duplex, not a McHouse, have the tenants pay most of your mortgage. Drive a used car that's paid off. But no ... most "middle class" people are too cowardly and brainwarshed to be seen as "poors."

Re:Kohath the deplorable anti-education retard sez

[Kohath]

Slashdot is so toxic

It's a reflection of the rest of society. Cultural leaders celebrate and reward hate because they're terrible people. Followers respond because they are followers. It's not headed for a peaceful ending. They still have time to change course and give up on being haters. They know it's making their lives worse for no benefit to anyone.