After 21 years of teaching, Barbara Freile no longer schedules tests the day after Halloween.

That's because many of her third-graders may have stayed up a little later to trick-or-treat last night, eaten a little — OK make that a LOT — of candy before bed, maybe had a little candy appetizer before breakfast today, loaded some more candy into their lunch boxes when mom wasn't looking and then showed up in Freile's classroom.

A lot of sugar. Less sleep. More sugar.

It all adds up to a Halloween hangover, a draggy/antsy/foggy feeling that elementary teachers and students across the county may be dealing with today.

It's not the best state to figure out how many baseballs you actually have if you have eight rows of baseballs with eight baseballs in each row, or how to spell salad or camel, two of this week's spelling words in Freile's Fritz Elementary School classroom in the Conestoga Valley School District.

One of Freile's students, Nathan May, 9, was so tuckered out today that he put his shirt on inside-out and did not realize it until about 8:45 this morning, a discovery that made his classmates dissolve in fits of giggles.

Classmate Ashley Frey, 9, could relate.

"I'm a little sleepy and tired," she said.

Freile smiled. She knows the drill. She doesn't get too upset about it.

"Halloween," she said, "is kind of about candy."

While every kid dutifully noted their parents told them to go easy on their candy consumption, Halloween is a night to go a little wild.

Consider these classroom records: Hunter Severe, 8, collected 422 pieces of candy last night. Jacob Proebster, 8, claimed to have eaten 22 pieces of candy after he came home.

How did he feel today?

"Tired," Jacob said. "And loopy."

Jessica Giles, 9, said, "Hyper. I feel hyper."

So why do some kids feel the way they do on Nov. 1? Is it a sugar rush? Or a sugar crash?

Likely neither, said Lise Karpel, a registered dietitian with Ephrata Community Hospital.

"I think it's more about being out late," Karpel said.

A healthy child's body regulates the flow of blood sugar within a few hours of eating candy, Karpel said.

And contrary to what kids or their parents might think, eating candy does not make them act differently.

Studies, in particular a 1995 Vanderbilt University one, found that consuming sugar does not affect the behavior or thinking of children.

However, the researchers did note, "a small effect of sugar or effects on subsets of children cannot be ruled out."

Kids just may be feeling queasy "because they ate a bunch of junk," Karpel said.

Bonnie Gambler, a first-grade teacher for 30 years, thinks the day or two before Halloween are actually more distracting than the day after.

"They're a mess, in anticipation," said Gambler, who teaches at Central Manor Elementary School in the Penn Manor School District. "They can't sit still. 'I'm going to be this, I'm going to this parade...' "

By today, she said, "All their little needs will be met."

Still, she anticipated that she would see a kid who packed four or five candy bars in his lunch box today. Or another student might bring a candy bar to eat during classroom snacktime, a Mrs. Gambler no-no.

"I'll have to squelch that," she said.

Ronda Miller, a third-grade teacher at Landisville Primary Center in the Hempfield School District, actually doesn't notice any problems.

Parents, she said, monitor their kids' candy intake.

"They know we have a day or two of school before the weekend," she said. "They are serious about making sure their kids are ready."

It's not the end of the world if parents let their kids binge on three or four pieces of candy on Halloween night, said Karpel, who is partial to Reese's peanut-butter cups herself. ("Definitely NOT candy corn," she noted firmly. "I hate it.")

But after that, she recommends that parents limit their kids' consumption to a piece or two of candy a day, a piece being a "fun-size," not a full-size candy bar.

"Personally, I can't imagine not going out on Halloween as a kid and getting lots of goodies," she said.

"I'm not anti-candy by any stretch of the imagination. But it is a treat. It's not a food group. And we do have to remember that."

CONTACT US: cstauffer@LNPnews.com or 481-6024