A new ethnographic study from Aalborg University finds that exhaustion and shifting energy levels are a central but overlooked part of how Danish schoolchildren themselves understand wellbeing.
DR reports that the study was led by Camilla Brændstrup Laursen, a medical anthropologist and postdoc at the Department of Medicine and Health Technology at Aalborg University. She followed and spoke with pupils in 2nd, 4th and 7th grade at a Danish public school for a total of 60 days.
The fieldwork was part of a wider research project on body and wellbeing. According to Laursen, tiredness and energy came up repeatedly when she asked pupils how they felt during the school day. She told DR that she had not expected the theme to take up so much space.
The study describes exhaustion appearing differently depending on age. Older pupils often became passive, wrapping themselves in blankets, yawning loudly or lying across their desks. Younger pupils more often showed restlessness and increased physical activity.
In one home economics lesson, Laursen observed that about two-thirds of a 7th-grade class lay over their desks while a video played on the board. The research is based on observations and qualitative interviews. It therefore cannot say how widespread exhaustion is among Danish pupils overall.
Not the same as poor wellbeing
Laursen stresses that exhaustion should not be equated with poor wellbeing, since children’s energy levels naturally fluctuate during a school day. As reported by Skolemonitor, her message is that tired pupils are not automatically in distress, but that schools should take more interest in why they become exhausted.
TV2 Nord notes that pupils kept returning to feelings of lacking energy regardless of the topic discussed, and that the exhaustion is tied to school structures rather than sleep alone. Ekstra Bladet adds that the researchers identify three overlapping forms of exhaustion: physical, mental and social.
A former national requirement of 45 minutes of daily movement in Danish schools has been abolished, and schools now decide locally how movement is included. In the Aalborg study, both pupils and teachers said movement helps when children are tired or restless. For pupils, however, movement often meant a pause from teaching, and some named sitting on a sofa as their preferred activity.
Why the study is being reported now
Ekstra Bladet and Avisen.dk report that the scientific article has just been published in the journal Social Science & Medicine. DR also points to a separate study from the Danish School of Education at Aarhus University, published on August 12, 2026, which finds that tired schoolchildren are a growing international problem affecting learning.
