“Junk Sleep”, Junk Life And The Youth

IN London, The Sleep Council had just concluded that British teenagers were damaging their health by not getting enough sleep because they were being distracted by electronics gadgets in their bedrooms. In its poll of 100 youngsters aged 12 to 16, it found out that 30 per cent managed just four to seven hours sleep a day as opposed to the recommended eight or nine hours.

THIS kind of sleep aptly tagged ‘junk sleep’ is a parallel to ‘junk foods’. Junk foods, as mediacal researches have shown, are dangerous to health. They are supposed to be a stop-gap arrangement before a full meal but are often consumed as normal meals. Junk foods cause serious health problems when consumed in excess. And because of their so-called “fast” nature, junk foods are somehow addictive once people get used to them. So it is with junk sleep. It is short in both length and quality and may damage the health of youngsters who, according to research, need a minimum of eight or nine hours of sleep for good physical and mental development. The brain needs this length and quality of sleep to perform properly at school.

IN Nigeria, such data will be lacking for obvious reasons but it is safe to wager a guess that at least among the urban elite, this phenomenon will have a similar effect on the youngsters who now perennially wear ear-pieces connected to some sound gadgets.

WE have had cause to complain about the free night calls, a promotion embarked upon by some of the GSM service providers and the deleterious effects which such could have on both health and productivity, especially in a society like Nigeria, where the word ‘free’ attracts the populace with the force of a demon. To our dismay, the regulatory body has done nothing about such promotional deals that are taking a deadly toll on the health of Nigerian youths. This becomes more lamentable considering the fact that the regulatory body, National Communications Commission (NCC), itself publicly admitted that the GSM service providers were yet to provide satisfactory services for their customers.

THE cable television and other direct-to-home channels are equally guilty of robbing the youth of their hours of rest. In most homes, where the cable television has come to be a symbol of class, the youth are so much attached to the television sets that it is often difficult to get them to do other things, even the normal household chores. They are there glued to the screen and surfing for the many programmes that the cable channels have on their bouquet. These young impressionable minds have been captured by the glamour of television so much so that they hardly have time for other creative and productive things. This is not unexpected because television is one medium which holds almost a hundred per cent attention unlike other media like radio and the print— newspapers, magazines and books— which can still accommodate other activities.

OF course, the electronic revolution is to make life much easier but the attitude of mankind to it seems to be ultimately counterproductive. It is now almost impossible to imagine life without the GSM, video, compact (video) disc (CD, VCD) and, to some extent, the Cable Television. It is almost like these items have been with mankind since eternity. Yet the truth is that these are recent discoveries in the history of mankind. But mankind has so much attached itself to them, that it is almost impossible to imagine life without them.

MANKIND’S attitude to technology should be conditioned by discipline. The human mind, ideally, should be superior to matter to the point of being able to control its influence. But what mankind is experiencing is the absurd situation in which matter is holding mankind captive and/or enraptured in a negative way. The agents of socialisation, especially parents, are being challenged by these gadgets. They should be able to control their children or counsel them to have a disciplined relationship with these gadgets in order not to be affected by their negative attributes.

MANY countries with poor economies and lax states like Nigeria are helpless in the face of the direct onslaught of these media technologies against the sensibilities of their populations, especially the youth. In cultures where these exposures are actually seen as symbols of ‘advancement’ or ‘civilisation’, it becomes very difficult to present them as what they could be — negative influence on the mind — if discipline and control are not exercised.

TO exercise responsive and responsible parenting probably remains the proper and effective antidote to these technological poisons. Parents should take more than a fleeting interest in the lives of their children. What these children watch, do and how they conduct their lives should interest the parents so that they can have good, lengthy and quality lives, especially as opposed to the serious or life-shortening implications of both ‘junk’ foods and ‘junk sleep’.