A new investigation on the school schedules of Spanish students once again calls into question the advantages of the continuous day that is common in Spanish institutes due to its impact on health. The continuous day was already criticized by the OECD two months ago, although for academic reasons, considering that it harms the fight against school dropout.
According to the work that is about to be published by the sociologist from the University of Valencia, Daniel Gabaldón, children who concentrate school hours only in the morning get up very early, rest little, eat poorly, do more homework and spend more time on screens than those who have a split shift. As advantages, they do more sports and see more of their friends. In the opinion of the sociologist, the debate on school schedules should be rethought thinking exclusively of the student and not of issues such as the family balance of the parents or the working conditions of the teachers.
Galbaldón's Time Project research, carried out together with the researcher Kadri Táht from the University of Tallinn, is based on data from the two published editions of the INE Time Use Survey from 2002 and 2008 (in ages 10 to 18 years).
In Spain, the majority of secondary school students follow the intensive day, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., compacting all classes in the morning and leaving the afternoons free. Some primary schools have also taken advantage of this schedule (in Catalonia it is exceptional, only 25 schools do so).
Those who work a full shift get up earlier to go to school but also go to bed later than those who work a split shift, and although some take a nap (10%), they cannot recover all the rest hours. They lose about 42 minutes a day.
Gabaldón explains that in Spain people get up early in the morning in excess of other countries because they maintain Central European time, something that does not correspond to it in terms of geographical location. That causes the desynchronization of the internal clock with sunlight.
“A primary or infant child enters school at 9 am, which is, in reality, 8 am in autumn and 7 am in summer. Adolescents enter at 8 am, which is 7 am in autumn and 6 am in summer”.
How much do they sleep? Little, according to the survey, and less those who work an intensive day. On average they sleep 9.12 hours in primary school and 8.23 in secondary school (continuously). Although it seems to be within the minimum recommended by paediatricians (9 to 12 hours in primary school and 8 to 10 in secondary), it is inferred that a part of the child population sleeps more and a percentage of children rest below these figures.
In primary school, the difference between a child who only goes to school in the mornings and another who goes to school in the mornings and afternoons is 16 more minutes of rest in favor of the latter, and 19 minutes in secondary school.
“Adolescents tend to be more owls than larks, so they tend to get sleepy later than they did as children. Instead, they are forced to get up early,” says the researcher. On the contrary, other investigations indicate that all the time that is delayed when waking up in the morning is, practically, beneficial for sleep and does not last during the night.
The sociologist warns that there is a risk that young people will establish, with these routines, a chronotype (synchronization of circadian rhythms). more evening in their adult life.
The research includes eating habits. Those who only attend school in the morning have breakfast before (the peak is at 7:30 a.m. compared to 8:30 a.m. for the others), they eat later (around 3-4 p.m. compared to the 1-2 p.m. band), they snack later and have dinner at the same time (from 8 to 10 pm).
For Gabaldón, they are unhealthy routines, especially food, since a delay in eating can affect the level of fat in the body and increases the risk of being overweight.
The use of screens, including television, also increases among children who are free in the afternoon, compared to those who are not. In primary school the difference is 25 minutes a day (109 minutes for the compacted class and half an hour in secondary school (117 minutes).
Regarding homework, there is a difference of 20 minutes a day, in high school, perhaps to compensate for the lack of performance of the students in the last hours of the morning, Gabaldón hypothesizes.
Finally, the students who have the afternoon free see their friends more (in primary school) and do between 12 and 13 more minutes of regulated sport per day.
In the opinion of the researcher, it is necessary to investigate more about the habits of schoolchildren in general and, especially, from the health point of view, to find out the impact on health of such intensive schedules, especially as regards overweight and obesity.
