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I'd hope that AAP would have this right, but since they don't cite any studies - my instinct would be to assume that teenagers don't have a specific problem get
by corin_ 12y ago
I'd hope that AAP would have this right, but since they don't cite any studies - my instinct would be to assume that teenagers don't have a specific problem getting to sleep earlier other than social/cultural. It's generally understood for adults that you can train yourself to fit a different schedule (to become a "night person" or a "morning person"), what is it that makes this different for teenagers? Certainly when I was a teenager my failings to be alert in the morning were based on not going to bed early enough because of things I wanted to do and lack of self-discipline, not because of biological reasons.
And therefore, if school times were moved back would teenagers not just stay up later and still not sleep enough?
- bryanlarsen 12y agohttp://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829130.100-why-teenagers-really-do-need-an-extra-hour-in-bed.html#.VOeVsXVGjUY http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829130.100-why-teena...
- corin_ 12y agoThanks - though that still doesn't offer any details on why they believe there is a biological cause, not just a social cause. > Adolescents are increasingly using stimulants to compensate for sleep loss, and caffeinated and/or sugary drinks are the usual choice. The half-life of caffeine is 5 to 9 hours. So a caffeinated drink late in the day delays sleep at night. Tiredness also increases the likelihood of taking up smoking. > Collectively, a day of caffeine and nicotine consumption, the biological tendency for delayed sleep and the increased alertness promoted by computer or cellphone use generates what Carskadon calls a "perfect storm" for delayed sleep in teenagers. Having looked at the full paper about school start times from AAP [1] it cites three papers on this subject [2] [3] [4], I'll come back with another comment if I manage to dive deeper into the rabbit hole on those... (I'm not saying there isn't a biological cause, just that since my gut instinct is that it would be caused by cultural reasons I'm interested to see the reasoning behind thinking there are biological reasons too.) [1] http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/08/19/peds.2014-1697 http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/08/... [2] Frey S, Balu S, Greusing S, Rothen N, Cajochen C. Consequences of the timing of menarche on female adolescent sleep phase preference. PLoS ONE. 2009;4(4):e5217 [3] Carskadon MA, Acebo C, Seifer R. Extended nights, sleep loss, and recovery sleep in adolescents. Arch Ital Biol. 2001;139(3):301–312 [4] Roenneberg T, Kuehnle T, Pramstaller PP, et al. A marker for the end of adolescence. Curr Biol. 2004;14(24):R1038–R1039