Sleep Struggle

     One in every five young people has a sleep problem, so you're not alone. Getting enough sleep has become as important as eating vegetables and exercising regularly. It's very important for your body.

     Most young people only get seven hours of sleep each night, when they actually need nine hours. And making up for lost sleep during the week by sleeping on weekends doesn't really work. In fact, sleeping late on weekends may actually do you more harm than good, if you have sleep problems.

     What happens if you don't get enough sleep? If your sleep problem continues for a few nights, you could suffer serious problems. Lack of sleep can affect learning and memory. Worse, if your sleep difficulties last a long time, that could lead to anxiety (焦虑). Therefore, you've got to have some healthy sleep habits. Below are some suggestions:

     •Go to bed at the same time—including weekends, if possible.

     •Wake up around the same time every morning. When you sleep late just one morning during the week, it may disturb your body clock. This will make it hard for you to sleep that night.

     •Do something relaxing before going to bed.

     •Exercise during the day. Don't exercise right before going to bed.

     •Avoid drinking. Alcohol (酒精) makes you excited. This prevents you from falling asleep or wakes you up during the night.

     •Don't smoke. Smoking is always bad for the body. Smoking before bedtime keeps you awake.

     If trying these tips over a couple of weeks does not help you, speak to your doctor. Do not take any medicine without first asking your doctor. Many of them have strong side effects.

    In her new book, “The Smartest Kids in the World,” Amanda Ripley, an investigative journalist, tells the story of Tom, a high-school student from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who decides to spend his senior year in Warsaw, Poland. Poland is a surprising educational success story: in the past decade, the country raised students' test scores from significantly below average to well above it. Polish kids have now outscored(超过……分数) American kids in math and science, even though Poland spends, on average, less than half as much per student as the United States does. One of the most striking differences between the high school Tom attended in Gettysburg and the one he ends up at in Warsaw is that the latter has no football team, or, for that matter, teams of any kind.

    That American high schools waste more time and money on sports than on math is an old complaint. This is not a matter of how any given student who plays sports does in school, but of the culture and its priorities. This December, when the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results are announced, it's safe to predict that American high-school students will once again display their limited skills in math and reading, outscored not just by students in Poland but also by students in places like South Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, and Japan. Meanwhile, they will have played some very exciting football games, which will have been breathlessly written up in their hometown papers.

    Why does this situation continue? Well, for one thing, kids like it. And for another, according to Ripley, parents seem to like the arrangement, too. She describes a tour she took of a school in Washington D.C., which costs thirty thousand dollars a year. The tour leader—a mother with three children in the school—was asked about the school's flaws(瑕疵). When she said that the math program was weak, none of the parents taking the tour reacted. When she said that the football program was weak, the parents suddenly became concerned. “Really?” one of them asked worriedly, “What do you mean?”

    One of the ironies(讽刺) of the situation is that sports reveal what is possible. American kids' performance on the field shows just how well they can do when expectations are high. It's too bad that their test scores show the same thing.

    In the fall of 1985, I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University to study law, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.

    My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.

    Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopt and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No.3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.

    You can imagine how busy I became, raising four boys under the age of 8. Our home was a complete zoo--a joyous zoo. Not surprisingly, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant taking as few as one class each semester.

    The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit, but I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.

    In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree!

    I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you're looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you're in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won't arrive in your life on one day. It's a process. Remember: little steps add up to big dreams.

    It had coaster brakes and only one gear (齿轮). My two older brothers used it before me. The twenty-inch, black frame showed its age. It was scratched and nicked from years of use, but I didn't care. It was mine now.

My tricycle stood by the front steps of our house—-forgotten. In the front yard. I held the handlebars, swung my right leg over and settled myself onto the seat. My legs weren't long enough for both to touch the ground at the same time. I leaned to one side one foot supported me, I looked around, made sure no one was watching and kicked off My feet reached for the pedals and began to pump.

    After a few wobbly (不稳定的))yards, I fell off, and landed on my shoulder in the grass. I jumped up, brushed myself off, got back on and fell again.

    A week later, I rode in circles around the yard. Always to the left, I didn't wobble or fall. I was steady as I followed the beaten trail ['d created in the grass. I was free and I was flying.

    “Michael!” Mum called. ‘Supper is read!'

     I turned toward the front steps, wobbled and fell to the ground. I didn't know how to go straight or to the right. I'd learned to travel in circles to the left.

A year later, I was bicycling all around the neighbourhood. At twenty years old, I left home and cried. It was a lonely time in my life. Mum wasn't there It was time to learn how to turn again. I married and became a Dad —- I stumbled（跌跌撞撞）. There was someone else to think about new turns to stumble through.

    Each time I fell. I got up, brushed myself off and turned around the obstacle (障碍). Each time I think I'm on a straight road, life throws a turn in front of me. I may fall, but I always climb back on my seat.

    Monty Hempel is a professor of environmental sciences at Redlands University in California. He studies ecological literacy­or eco-literacy, for short. Eco-literacy is the ability to think about and understand the natural processes that make life possible.

    Monty Hempel says eco-literacy gives people knowledge about environmental problems. But he says it does not always work on getting them to change their behavior.

    Mr. Hempel wrote part of the Worldwatch Institute's latest State of the World report. He says in his article, "Some people think that eco-literacy is just a green form of science literacy. And what I have tried to ask is whether that's enough. In other words, what an ecologically-literate person needs to know might include things like the effect of environmental pollution on ecosystem, the energy systems, and all of those kinds of things that we would call the science of ecology."

    "That doesn't seem to lead to action to protect our environment ­ to protect our life-support system to the level that we need to. Just knowing a lot about the environment doesn't mean that we actually act to save it. After all, actions speak louder than knowledge."

    He adds that people may not be very worried about environmental problems if they seem far away. "Some people call it psychological distance. A lot of climate issues are worse in the Arctic and most of us don't spend time in the Arctic. And so, there's a certain distance. But there's also a distance that's happening in the world as it urbanizes ­ people spending more time in front of screens and less time out in nature. We become, if you will, disconnected from the natural systems that used to be the key to success for a human being."

    To help children discover the wonders of nature, he adds that children should learn about nature in school. But he also points out we have a high mountain for people to climb from knowledge to action.

    Doctors say you had better use it before you lose it. The more you sit each day, the more chance you have of getting sick.

    Richard Rosenkranz of Kansas State University was among the researchers. He said people who sat for long periods were at great risk of diseases when compared with those who sat less. He said that was especially true for some chronic (慢性的) diseases.

    Richard Rosenkranz studied the relationship between sitting and chronic diseases in middle-aged Australian men. He worked with researchers from the University of Western Sydney. They examined the health records of more than 63,000 men from New South Wales. The men were between the ages of 45 and 65. The men reported about what diseases they had, or did not have. And they kept record of the amount of time each day that they sat.

    The study also showed that exercising every morning for 30minutes did not reduce the health risk if you spend the next eight hours sitting at the desk. Mr. Rosenkranz said it was important to make sure you exercise. But he said it was also important to find ways not to sit so much during the day.

    Many jobs today require sitting and working at the desk all day. James Levine works at the Mayo Clinic in the United Sates. He suggests working while standing at high table some of the time instead of sitting at a desk. Dr. Levine also suggests standing while using the telephone or eating. Or he advises walking with the people you work with for an on-foot meeting. And he notes that if you spend more time on your feet, you may have muscle activity that helps burn fats and sugars in your body.