What turns early-to-bed children into nocturnal teenagers
who often don't hit the pillow until close to midnight?
New evidence supports the idea
that adolescent sleep patterns are a natural part of growing
up, not a matter of laziness.
A team of American and Swiss researchers found that it
takes longer for teens to need to sleep after being kept
awake, suggesting they have an unconscious propensity
to go to bed -- and wake up -- later. "This is another
piece of the puzzle suggesting the need for later school
times," said sleep researcher Dr. Robert Vorona, an associate
professor of internal medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical
School.
In recent years, both researchers and school officials
have begun to pay more attention to the sleep habits of
teenagers and younger children. Some schools have made
start times later because of concerns that students are
too sleepy to begin learning effectively at, say, 6:30
or 7 a.m.
Some sleep researchers suspect that teen sleep habits
are closely linked to the physical effects of puberty
and not a sign of sloth (as many parents still like to
think) or of cultural influences such as late-night television.
Indeed, an estimated 7 percent to 16 percent of teens
suffer from a condition called "delayed sleep phase syndrome,"
which makes them want to go to sleep and wake up much
later than other people; only a tiny percentage of adults
-- fewer than one in 500 -- have the same problem.
In the new study, researchers from Brown University and
the University of Zurich recruited six teenagers and seven
children who either hadn't reached puberty or were in
the early stages of it. Then they kept the students up
for 36 hours to see how their sleep systems reacted.
The findings appear in the November issue of Sleep.
The research team found that it took longer for the older
teenagers to need sleep. This suggests there is a "biological
imperative in teens to have a later bedtime and wake time,"
said Vorona, who has reviewed the findings.
The authors rightly state that more research is needed
because the number of subjects in the study is small,
Vorona said. Still, he said there's plenty of evidence
that teens need more sleep, and shouldn't be forced to
wake up too early.
Many researchers believe teens require nine or more hours
of sleep, but that can be hard to achieve when they're
being squeezed by early school start times and late hours
filled with homework, athletics, work and socializing.
"Inadequate sleep is problematic as it can impair academic
performance, alter mood and increase the risk of motor
vehicle crashes," Vorona said. "Parents should understand
that their high school students need more, not less, sleep
than is assumed for optimal performance. They may also
want to encourage those in positions of power to reorient
bus and school schedules to allow a later start and end
time for high school students."
- More articles
on Sleep
Reference
Source 101
November
4, 2005
