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KATHMANDU, July 2: A student at Pathshala Nepal Foundation is awake late night every night. “If there is no electricity, he sleeps early. Otherwise he’s wide awake the whole night,” complains his mother. Once he’s watching the TV or on the internet, he doesn’t realize the time passing by.
He gets up late in the morning because he goes to bed late. “His school bus arrives around 8 am and he gets up only half an hour before and gets ready for school and is always in a rush,” says his mother.
Madhu Sudan Adhikari, Coordinator and a teacher at Pathshala Nepal Foundation, says that the problem of sleeping late has been big lately. Many parents come to school complaining about their children going to bed late.
Using homework as an excuse, many students watch television, use computers, mobile phones, and iPad’s and don’t realize the time pass. Such students can be found at Galaxy Public High School too.
According to the school, reasons like watching explicit websites on the internet, sending SMS’s over and over again, watching television, Facebooking and Tweetering, are why students sleep late.
“Students, making an excuse of doing their assignments, spend hours surfing the internet,” shares Amita Dungana, teacher at Galaxy Public School. According to the school, around 5 percent of the total students are affected by the use of electronic devices and problems of sleeping late.
“The students can be seen online late night. This shows how late they are on their electronic devices,” says Adhikari of Pathshala. According to him, the problem of young ones not sleeping early is the fault of the parents, who do not control their kids because they are busy. Also, children from nuclear families seem to have this problem.
Dr Jyoti Ratna Dhakpa, Child Specialist at Kantibal Hospital, says that youth above the age of 14 usually suffer from this problem.
According to Dr Dhakpa, the young ones who are sleeping late are prone to mental and health problems in the future. Hamper in daily work, loss in memory power and loss in focus are just some of the problems that can arise from sleeping disorders, she informs.
“The students, because they sleep late, are not able to focus properly during their class and home works, because they have to wake up early and go to school,” says Dr Dhakpa, adding that the use of devices has also caused the young people to gain weight abnormally.
According to Dr Mahat, a psychiatrist, people who have sleeping disorders will see change in their behavior. “They will prefer staying alone more often, get up late in the morning, push back daily work or just do it late and also lose focus on what they are doing, along with other problems that can arise,” he says.
He added that this is also the cause of motorbike accidents of many plus two students in recent times.
“Many kids these days watch television, movies or just surf the internet before going to bed late and they fantasize about it because they are less connected with their family and society and that’s because they prefer staying alone. This has also led many young ones to be sexual active, which has led girls to pregnancy at an early age,” shares Dr Mahat.
He further adds, “If the parent’s try and restrict the young ones from doing so, they will do it somehow out of curiosity.”
He recommends parents to use internet security and cut down on the timings of using electronic devices instead of restricting kids.
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