As I write this, it's Monday, and frankly, the week is off to a miserable start. There is a chill in the air (and by chill, I mean it was 67), the stock market is in a free-fall, and Covid-19 is dominating the airways. To add insult to injury, my cold had returned (for the second time in as many months), AND I am at a 24% increased risk for a heart attack.
Yes, heart attack!
So, I spent today glued to my bed, television, and heart rate monitor.
Why the increased concern with the condition of my ticker? Lack of sleep!
A 2014 U.S. study showed that the one hour of sleep lost during the daylight saving time "spring forward" raised the risk of having a heart attack the following Monday by 24% compared to every other Monday. By contrast, "falling back" later in the year when we gain an extra hour of sleep, heart attack risk fell 21% on the following Tuesday after returning to standard time.
Your heart is not alone in its vulnerability. The change in Daylight Savings Time has also been linked to lack of appetite, mood changes, car accidents, and an increased risk of stroke.
Seriously, can someone explain the reason behind this time shifting madness? It's killing me, LITERALLY!
It's amazing the impact one little bitty hour of sleep can have. And remember, it affects more than us; it affects our students as well.
We have long known the impact that sleep can have on student achievement, musical and otherwise. Study after study shows that our school-aged teens are wandering our campus in a sleep-deprived zombie-like state. School, activities, homework, repeat.
Teaching and learning don't exist in a bubble. It is part of an educational and natural ecosphere that is affected by things outside of our classrooms. And, as hard as we might try to ignore it, nature almost always wins, so we had better pay attention.
We have long been able to tie the effect that nutrition and physical health have on brain development and mental cognition. But there is new and an ever-growing mountain of evidence that suggests the correlation between our environment and our cognitive function is even higher than we initially thought.
Need more evidence? Read on.
In a recently published paper entitled Air Filters, Pollution, and Student Achievement, academian, and author Michael Gilraine, looked at the surprising consequences of the Aliso Canyon gas leak in 2015.
In response to the disaster, the local school district didn't re-engineer the school buildings or make dramatic education reforms; they just installed $700 commercially available filters that you could put into any room in the country, and test scores shot up.
This rural community is not alone in its findings. There is a growing body of evidence that ties air quality to improved cognition.
That got you thinking? If so, you must be breathing clean air. But wait, there's more.
In New York City, schools are installing washing machines to improve student hygiene, and are seeing remarkable results. Attendance is up dramatically as is academic performance, as we all know, you can't teach a child that's not there.
As a profession, we long ago discovered that teaching and learning are not isolated to a school or classroom. What has been more recent is our understanding that it is also not limited to just the cerebral cortex or the temporal lobe. It's affected by the lungs, the eyes, and the ears.
Yes, the ears.
There have been hundreds of studies on the impact of music on brain function. But what is less known, or less documented, is how the effect of making music affects our desire to engage, interact, and learn in the aftermath, but I believe it does.
You can't ignore the fact that cleaner air leads to higher academic performance or that cleaner clothes increases reading scores. The evidence is clear.
But what about music? We know that students participating in music are more academically successful, but why? Could it be in part because of what they hear? Just because we can't quantify it or cite a causal relationship doesn't make it any less valid.
Making and hearing great music helps to make a great kid. How can it not? If what we eat and breathe affects us, how can what we see and hear not have the same impact?
Let me say it again, making and hearing great music helps to make great kids. I would bet my life on it.
And I live in one of the only places where Daylight Savings Time isn't observed, so my life has a 24% greater chance of being here tomorrow!
Have a great week.