Decisions, Decisions

It starts before you even open your eyes. “Do I get out of bed right now or sleep five more minutes? Wear a jacket or sweater, sneakers or shoes to school today? Eat oatmeal, toast, or a muffin for breakfast? Grab an apple or banana for lunch? Sit in front or back of the school bus? Raise my hand in class or hide behind the kid in front of me? Start on easy or hard test questions? Pick a fantasy or a mystery book for my book report? Write about snakes or cockroaches for science? Do harder or easier homework first? Do all my homework right after school or right after dinner?”

Experts call having too many choices "decision fatigue." Mizz C. calls it brain freeze.

Here’s how one stressed-out student describes "decision fatigue:"

After making many decisions they become hard for me too. They also . . . make me very tired and lazy to the point where I don’t want to do anything. If they start to make me tired I procrastinate or try to forget that I have a decision to make.

Mizz C. has loads of decision making tips that she'll be blabbing about in the future. Here are a few starters:

• Only make big decisions you're rested and fed. 

• Save your brain power for deciding the big stuff. Figuring out what activities to choose is way more important than deciding what to have for breakfast.  

• Put small decisions on autopilot. Go with the same food choices, if possible, for some meals or snack times. It's Oatmeal-for Breakfast-Week! Every Monday is Green Pants Day. Too many choices? Toss a coin! Heads up, it's a mystery for the next book report or snakes for the science project. Do harder homework first one week then easier homework first the next week. Decide which homework style works better for you. Stick with it for good. 

Now if only someone could help Mizz C. decide which shampoo to buy when the store runs out of her usual brand. Shampoo for curly, frizzy, dry, oily hair? Flower or lemon-scented? Economy or trial size? 

Never mind. Mizz C. needs a nap.

Sleep . . . the Super Study Skill

You wont' fall asleep here if you . . .  

. . . get more sleep here. 

BULLETIN! BULLETIN!

MIDDLE GRADERS NEED AT LEAST 9-11 HOURS OF SLEEP A NIGHT TO BECOME THEIR HAPPIEST, HEALTHIEST, STRONGEST, AND SMARTEST SELVES! 

You can stop reading now if you're late for school. But if you're just hangin' and want to know what happens while you're asleep, read on. 

Mizz C. used to worry about why some of her students fell asleep in her class. Was she boring? Impossible! The truth was that many of her students had not been getting enough sleep. She learned this distressing news when she wrote a classroom and library health book.

What Mizz C. found out after researching her book shocked her so much, she added a whole sleep section in her new and improved A+ Guide to Great Grades. If you don't want to buy the book, check out this sleep expert for free:

Like many humans from the Jurassic Era, Mizz C. once thought that when the body went to sleep, it was done for the day. WRONG! Mizz C. discovered that during sleep brains are like night crews that come into a building after hours to clean up. They work when it's quiet. During sleep, brains do housekeeping chores that keep the body in tip top shape. That's why it's so important to get in all those hours of sleep every night. These chores include sending out messages to different organs in the body:

“Hey you, pituitary gland. Release growth hormones to make this sleeper tall and strong. While you're at it, fix those worn-out cells! And you over there, white adipose tissue. Release appetite control hormones. Otherwise that person’s body is going to think it’s hungry tomorrow, even if it’s full. Pay attention reproductive organs. Someday that sleeping kid may become a parent. His body needs to get ready now while it's sleeping. So release some of those reproductive hormones tonight! Hey you, memory cells. Organize that information you learned today. You’ve only got nine hours, ten hours tops. Get going!”

Now that you know why your body needs so much sleep, go get some zzzs. Tune in again when you’re all rested. Mizz C. will soon be blabbing about how to make sure your tech toys--computer, phones, video games, and television--get enough sleep, so that you do, too. And she has another blab post on the back burner about how to improve your memory by sleeping at least 9-10 hours right before test day! Prepare to be amazed. In the meantime, nighty night.