Intervenções cronobiológicas para pré-adolescentes e adolescentes na educação : perspectivas e desafios

Abstract

Education is a fundamental pillar in the cognitive and intellectual development of individuals, however, an often neglected factor, but extremely important for learning and memory consolidation, is the quality of students' sleep. During puberty, there is an entrainment of biological rhythms, specifically circadian rhythms, leading young people to have a predilection for sleeping and waking up later. This is due to hormonal changes that affect melatonin production, a sleep-related hormone. The objective this study was to evaluate the evidence about chronobiological interventions in learning, sleep, mood, aggression and lifestyle habits adolescents and preadolescents. For this, an integrative review was carried out, using the Pubmed database, including intervention and observational studies in students aged 10-18 years of both sexes in which it has been published in the last 10 years, in Portuguese, Spanish and English. The results showed that chronobiological interventions in the area of Education positively interferes in the learning process, sleep quality, mood, decrease aggressiveness and daytime sleepiness and the adoption of healthier lifestyle habits. The most promising results consider the starting time of classes as a determining factor for academic success, from the moment in wich adjust the student's circadian preference to the best study time for them, the results are better both in terms of grades, but also in relation to the daytime behavior presented. Talking about chronobiological aspects and sleep is still a paradigm shift. Bringing this knowledge to the entire population, especially teenagers who are in an important phase of hormonal changes, should perhaps be the first big step, but also the main barrier to be broken.