Sleep and Teenagers
February 12, 2010 
17 Comments
For most of us, waking up is unpleasant. The first thing we hear in the morning is a blaring alarm, or the radio turning on, or in many cases, someone walking in and yelling at us that it’s time to get up. With this type of emergence into wakefulness, it is no surprise that most of us do not consider ourselves “morning people.” It is, after all, when we are seeking to transition out of what is perhaps the most important, and for many of us, our favorite part of the day. And for teens, the morning is an especially difficult time.
Doctors recommend adolescents get around 9 hours of sleep per night, but most are getting less than 7 hours a night, reports the National Sleep Foundation. This causes a number of problems for teenager. It leaves them sleepier during the day, and causes them to adopt abnormal sleep schedules on the weekends to try to make up for the lost sleep. These fluctuations in sleep patterns make them more tired.
A National Sleep Foundation poll conducted in 2006 found that fewer than 20% of adolescents got the recommended nine hours of sleep on school nights
The problem is not that teens are unwilling to sleep, as their obsession with sleeping on the weekend indicates, but that their schedule was designed for an adult instead. While the mind of an adult is typically ready for sleep at 10 PM, a teenager does not begin to produce melatonin, the hormone responsible for tiredness, until 11 PM, according to a study published in the journal Sleep Research. This means that simply setting an earlier bedtime for a teenager will in many cases not help them get more sleep. This same study also said that many teenagers were still in REM sleep, rapid eye movement or deep, dreaming sleep, between 6:30 and 7:00 AM, when most teenagers are required to wake up for school. The brains of these students, then, will have great difficulty functioning during their first class, and the sleep debt will hinder them throughout the day.
Researchers recommend moving school opening times to 8:30 AM, but transportation costs, after-school activities, and parental concerns, are cited as reasons to prevent these changes, despite rises in test scores in schools that opened later in Connecticut, Kentucky, and Minnesota.
Other issues would also be addressed by improved sleep. Childhood obesity has been linked to a poor sleep regimen, most likely due to both social factors, tired and cranky children are likely to eat more food, and biological factors, the hormone leptin that controls fat digestion can be altered by sleep deprivation. Likewise, sleep is known to improve immune system functioning. People who slept less than seven hours a night were three times as likely to contract a virus, one study found. Sleep helps the body focus on producing white blood cells, anthropologists believe. Finally, the CDC reports that “drowsy driving” accounts for thousands of teen car accidents every year, making a lack of sleep extremely dangerous for the more than fifty percent of teens who admitted to “drowsy driving” in the same Sleep Foundation study cited earlier.
We are only beginning to understand the functions of sleep. But what we do know now is that it is vital to our health in more ways than one, that teenagers are not getting enough of it, and that their sleep needs are different from those who design their schedules. And despite the preponderance of evidence linking poor sleep habits to obesity, decreased performance in school, depression, and and a variety of other issues, no one seems ready to do anything to fix the problem.
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Dear Frances,
I agree with you. The difference between 6am and 7am is a HUUUGE difference!! The teens get the deepest of their sleep during that time. In fact, it’s from 4am-7am that they get their best sleep and if that’s interrupted, their functioning and performance suffers. That hour is also usually the difference between the middle school and high school wake up time, which is why it is so huge! The middle school wake up time feels sooooooooo much better. It makes you feel like a kid at heart!!
I agree that people who do not sleep enough are prone to health issues and early morning problems, such as drowsiness and attention problems. However, I don’t think changing school hours to later times is a viable answer to counter some of these problems with teenagers. Making kids go to bed early, to ensure they get enough sleep, is part of the parenting job. My parents had a weekday curfue for me. As a result, I sleep eight hours most days of the week out of habit now that I am an adult. That is when works doesn’t require me to lose sleep.
Even I completely agree with this article as it is very important for all teenagers to get a sound sleep of at least 7-8 hours every day to keep themselves fit and healthy not only physically but also mentally. It is during our sleep time, that the body gets rejuvenated and gets some rest. So, if there is a lack of proper sleep, it will result in stress, memory loss, reduced immunity level, tiredness, lack of concentration etc. Therefore, a good sleep is very important especially for the teenagers, who spend most of their day in school either studying or participating in other activities like sports etc.
I’m a teenager and I find I hardly do get enough sleep. I used to be up till the early hours on school nights and was always late. I’m in grade 11 now and I’ve had to take a personal decision to start getting to bed earlier. I’ve found I’m more alert and my grades are improving. My school starts at 8:30 so that idea could be a good one for other schools. But, for a teenager to improve his or her sleep pattern it must be their decision and no improvement or change to school hours will change that.
The sleeping habit of young generation is worrying every one. One should sleep around 9 hours a day, less sleep lead to diseases life like obesity and decreased performance in school. The advent of computer and the IT has changed the life of people. I appreciate this article.
I completely agree with the facts stated in this article. My son is now 15, and no matter how many times I send him to bed at 10pm he never falls asleep until 11pm or later. And in the mornings he is always hard to wake up. If he rides the bus he has to be awake at 6am. If I take him, he can sleep until 7am. That hour really does make a difference. I think we as parents need to take a more active role in using articles such as this one when it is time to discuss the new school years starting times. If acedemics and our teens health are important, I recommend sending this article to all of our school boards committee members!