Mental & Physical Wellness

Research Brief: Breakfast for Learning by the Food Research & Action Center

Skipping Breakfast and Experiencing Hunger Impair Children’s Ability to Learn

• Behavioral, emotional, mental health, and academic problems are more prevalent among children and adolescents strugglingwith hunger.
• Children and adolescents experiencing hunger have lower math scores and poorer grades.
• Children experiencing hunger are more likely to be hyperactive, absent, and tardy, in addition to having behavioral and attention problems more often than other children.
• Teens experiencing hunger are more likely to have been suspended from school and have difficulty getting along with other children.
• Children with hunger are more likely to have repeated a grade, received special education services, or received mental health counseling, than low-income children who do not experience hunger.
• Students who are undernourished have poorer cognitive functioning when they miss breakfast.
• Students who skip breakfast are less able to differentiate among visual images, show increased errors, and have slower memory recall.

Eating Breakfast, Including at School, Helps Improve Student Academic Performance and Behavior

• Children who eat breakfast at school — closer to class and test-taking time — perform better on standardized tests than those who skip breakfast or eat breakfast at home.
• Students who eat breakfast the morning of a standardized test have significantly higher scores in spelling, reading, and math, compared to those who do not eat breakfast.
• Student academic achievement increases, especially for math, when schools offer the School Breakfast Program.
• Students who participate in school breakfast show improved attendance, behavior, and academic performance as well as decreased tardiness.
• Providing breakfast to students at school improves their concentration, alertness, comprehension, memory, and learning.
• Children who eat breakfast show improved cognitive function, attention, and memory.
• Consuming breakfast improves children’s performance on mathematical tasks, vocabulary tests, demanding mental tasks, and reaction to frustration.

Breakfast in the Classroom Programs and Programs Offering Breakfast at no Cost to all Children in the Cafeteria Yield Other Positive Results

• Children who increase their school breakfast participation as a result of a school breakfast program offered at no cost to all students show greater improvements in math scores, attendance, punctuality, depression, anxiety, and hyperactivity than children whose participation remains unchanged or decreases.

Starting Your Day Out Right….Eat Breakfast

Breakfast literally stands for breaking the fast from not eating overnight. There was a time when breakfast was eaten for energy to work and to think. Today eating breakfast often gets put on the back burner compared to other activities.

Parents and kids, did you know that eating a healthy breakfast…?

• Gets your body refueled and off to a great start?
• Gives you energy to think, play and be active?
• Works to help you have better concentration, problem-solving and eye-hand coordination?
• Helps to avoid high calorie snacks during the day?
• Helps your body get more vitamins and minerals and less fat and cholesterol?
• Helps your body weight stay in a healthy range?

The key to eating breakfast is to plan ahead and allow for some time in the morning. Talk about breakfast choices the night before so some of this can be ready in the morning. Kids may need time to wake up before they are ready to eat so allow a few minutes for that. Planning to take food with you or to eat at home will soon become routine and save you time.

There is nothing magical about “normal” breakfast foods. Try eating a variety of foods and food combinations to improve the nutritional content. Avoid having only one food group at breakfast and instead, incorporate protein, fat, and carbohydrates in your breakfast along with fiber, to help sustain your energy levels & help you feel full longer. Instead try:

• Cereal with milk and fruit
• Peanut butter on whole wheat toast.
• Bagel with cheese
• Reheated rice, hard-cooked eggs
• Oatmeal with applesauce
• Pita bread and yogurt
• Toasted waffle topped with sliced fruit
• Chicken noodle soup and fruit
• Leftover pizza
• Vegetables, salsa and low-fat shredded cheeses wrapped in a tortilla
• A smoothie blended with fruit, low fat yogurt and wheat germ or flax seed
• A microwaved potato topped with broccoli and grated parmesan cheese

The sky is the limit, think of all the new breakfast favorites your family will discover! Enjoy!

USDA’s Smart Snacks in school standards are practical, science-based nutrition standards for all foods and beverages sold or served to students during the school day. The following list of foods meet the standards for all grade levels as of June 1 st , 2019. This list is up to date to the best of our knowledge; however, product formulation changes frequently without notice. This list is not all inclusive. If you have additional questions, please contact Kim Franta at (952) 556-6151.

There is no precise number of minutes or hours of sleep at night that guarantees you will wake up feeling totally refreshed. But based on your age and lifestyle, what’s recommended for you likely falls within a certain range. To help yourself stay alert during the day, try sticking with these guidelines. 

Newborns: From 0-3 months, babies need between 14 and 17 hours of sleep. This includes daytime naps, since newborns rarely sleep through the night. Older infants (4-11 months) need about 12 to 15 hours of sleep each day. 

Toddlers: Between the first and second year of life, toddlers need between 11 and 14 hours of sleep each night.

Children: Preschoolers (3-5 years) should get 10 to 13 hours, while school-age kids (6-13 years) should strive for nine to 11 hours each night.

Teenagers: As kids get older, their need for sleep decreases slightly. Teens (14-17 years) require about eight to 10 hours of nightly sleep.

Adults: Between the ages of 18 and 64, adults should aim for seven to nine hours of nightly sleep. If you’re older than 65, you may need a little less: seven to eight hours is recommended.

Learn more at the National Sleep Foundation!

Daily Habits to Help You Sleep

• Establish a routine sleep schedule. Go to bed at the same time each night and wake up at the same time each day, including on weekends.
• Manage your stress level. Try to reduce the stressors in your life. Making a list of all the things on your mind earlier in the evening may help to reduce nighttime anxiety.
• Restrict your time in bed. Limit the time you spend in bed trying to fall asleep and stay asleep throughout the night. The harder you try to get to sleep, the more difficult it may become.
• Only use your bed for sleeping or sex. Don’t read, watch television, eat, do work assignments, or use computers or smart phones while in bed. Train your brain to associate your bed only with sleep.
• Avoid or limit naps. If you need to nap, do so before 3:00 pm and limit the nap to 30 minutes or less. A short nap can refresh you during the day, but when you sleep longer than 30 minutes your body starts to go into a deeper sleep cycle, and you may wake up groggy.
• Avoid or limit caffeine, alcohol and nicotine intake. Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants that worsen insomnia. Avoid caffeine after 2:00 pm, as half the caffeine will still be in your body six hours later. Avoid nicotine at least two hours before bed, and avoid alcohol two to four hours before bed. While alcohol may initially make you drowsy, it usually causes you to wake up in the middle of the night.
• Get regular exercise. Aim for 20 to 30 minutes of exercise daily, but avoid exercising within three to four hours before bedtime. Exercise in the morning, outdoors if possible, as sunlight helps set your circadian clock, and exercise increases your energy for the day.

Prepare Your Bedroom

• Make it comfortable. Keep your bedroom dark and at a comfortable temperature. A cooler bedroom promotes better sleep.
• Keep it quiet. Block out disturbing sounds by using earplugs, a white noise machine or a fan.
• Use essential oils. If you find that fragrances such as lavender help you relax, use a whole-room diffuser and essential oils to surround yourself in calming scents.

Getting Ready for Bed

• Avoid large meals and drinks close to bedtime. Eating and drinking too much and eating too late can disrupt sleep. If you are hungry, choose a light snack.
• Incorporate a “buffer zone." Build in a transition time of about 30 to 60 minutes between your day activities and bedtime to help you prepare for sleep. Relaxing bedtime routines may include reading a book, listening to soft music, or practicing meditation or prayer. Avoid screen time, including computers, television, smartphones and tablets, one hour before bedtime. Brightly lit screens suppress your normal nighttime release of melatonin, the sleep hormone.
• Set aside a “worry time." Many people have racing thoughts or worries at night. Don’t try to suppress them. Instead, write them down in a journal before bedtime, and think about how you’ll deal with them the next day.

10 Tips for a Better Night’s Sleep

• Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, including weekends. It’s important for your body to have a regular sleeping schedule.
• Set a relaxing bedtime routine, such as listening to calming music, reading a book or taking a warm bath.
• Make sure your bedroom is cool. Your body temperature naturally decreases to initiate sleep. A bedroom temperature between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit helps promote sleep.
• Make sure your bedroom is quiet. Turn off noisy distractions such as a TV. Silence unwanted noise with earplugs or use “white noise,” such as from a fan, sound machine or an app.
• Make sure your bedroom is dark. Use blackout shade to block out unwanted light and dim the lights on your digital clock.
• Sleep on a mattress and pillows that are comfortable and supportive.
• Finish eating meals 2-3 hours before bedtime.
• Exercise regularly. A low-impact fitness program, like walking, swimming or yoga, is helpful for managing pain and stiffness and improving sleep.
• Try to limit how many caffeinated products you consume in the afternoon.
• Alcohol and nicotine in your body can disrupt sleep and can cause nighttime waking. For optimal sleep, skip them close to bedtime or altogether.