The Home-Work
Question.
“Casa” writes: “I would be
grateful if you could advise me with my problem of how to deal with lack of
sleep on the part of the schoolboy. My little son, aged nine and a half, lies
awake every night until generally about 9.45 p.m., and even sometimes as late
as 11 p.m. I have done everything to make sleep easy for him, but all my
efforts seem useless. He lives a very ordinary schoolboy’s life. He starts at
school at a boy’s college at 9 a.m. – having about fifteen minutes’ walk – and
finishes at 4 p.m., with an hour and a quarter’s break for dinner, for which he
returns home. He has tea at 4.30pm. and
then until 6 p.m. does his homework (of which he has rather a lot, in my
opinion), and from 6-7.30p.m. He generally plays with his toys or reads. His
supper consists of cereal and milk and three biscuits. He then has a hot bath
and is in bed at 8 p.m., with a hot water bottle at his feet. He has a room of
his own, and sleeps in the dark with his door open. When questioned as to why
he does not go to sleep he says his thoughts keep him awake. He does not play
in bed. We keep the house very quiet once the children are in bed. My little
girl of five goes to bed at 6 p.m., but also does not sleep until around 8 p.m.
I have tried giving the boy a drink of hot Ovaltine, after he goes to bed, and
even shutting his bedroom door, but finding him not quite happy with it shut so
have gone back to having it open. Both children’s bedrooms get a tiny bit of
light from a landing light, but not enough to see to play. I often think the
boy looks heavy eyed in the morning, and many a school morning, he would stay
in bed. He has just had a very mild attack of chicken pox, during which time I
have kept him all day out of doors, but it does not seem to have helped him to
go to sleep early. Once he is asleep nothing (thunderstorms or any noise) wakes
him. He sleeps absolutely soundly. I think he is of more than average intelligence,
with rather a large amount of general knowledge, especially about trains and
aeroplanes. He has a wonderful memory, and learns very quickly. The reports
form school have been very good up till Christmas, when he seems to have fallen
off in his exams, and his report says he is capable of far better work if he
would exert himself more. He takes Scott’s Emulsion all the winter, and towards
end of term or if he seems pale, Parish’s food. Beyond slight colds he has
never been ill and has escaped infectious diseases, although exposed to
infection in a marked degree. He is not particularly good at games. He is
left-handed, but now writes with his right hand equally well. He has great
difficulty in bowling a hoop, skipping, riding a bicycle or hitting a cricket
ball, but he is improving as the interest grows. Do you think it would be
better if I kept him up later? Up to the present I have felt he was resting
although not asleep.”
No, I don’t think it would be
advisable to keep your boy up later. You are quite right in saying that the
rest and relaxation are good even though he does not sleep. It sounds as if the
homework were too heavy for him after a long school day, especially now the
evenings are growing lighter and he could be getting exercise and play out of
doors after tea. I should be very much inclined to cut down his
homework or cut it out altogether, but I don’t feel able to suggest this
without knowing more of the school and the boy. So many boys of this age would
loathe having an exception made for them in this way, especially if that meant
any handicap in school work as a result. To make a special arrangement for him
to have no homework might quite possibly increase the troubles in his mind that
keep him awake at night. It might perhaps be possible to lessen the amount of
it by a talk with the headmaster, as it is quite on the cards that he would do
better in school if he had more recreation in the open air and more sleep. Apart
from this tentative suggestion I think all you can do is to go on keeping his
conditions of life as satisfactory as possible. By the way, you speak of a hot bath. I suppose you are careful to
see that this is not too hot? A really hot bath does make some people restless.
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