TEEN TALK: Teen sleep cycles disrupted by early start times

Spring break is fast approaching, and what I hear many students are looking forward to is all of the extra sleep they’ll be getting when school is out for a week. 

It’s completely natural, albeit stereotypical, to think of teenagers as lazy good-for-nothings who can’t even wake up in the morning because of their tendency to stay up late. However, while it’s completely natural to come to this conclusion, it’s also completely natural for teenagers to act like this – it’s in their biology, and not even a choice.

Studies conducted at Brown University’s Hospital Sleep Research Laboratory found that the growth and change occurring in adolescent brains and bodies affect their circadian rhythm, that is, their daily cycle, which includes sleeping. Being unable to feel tired until 11 p.m. or midnight, as well as nursing an urge to sleep in, is just another rite of passage for teenagers becoming adults. If this is true, why does school for teenagers start at 7 a.m.?

When teens were younger, their sleeping patterns were different. It was easy to get out of bed excited and awake as a young child, yet high school students are the ones forced to wake up the earliest. The idea is that starting early allows teens to get out of school at an earlier time, enabling them to participate in extracurricular activities, after-school jobs and homework. 

After doing all this, they’ll get home and try to fall asleep – lying in bed until midnight. So if a student wakes up at 6 a.m., that’s only six hours of sleep.

It is recommended adults get at least eight hours of sleep per night. Teenagers, according to the National Sleep Foundation, need much more – a recommended nine and a half hours of sleep per night. It seems that teenagers are greatly skirting this, and science states that it is not even their own fault.

Without the required amount of sleep, teenagers’ brains do not function well. Well-rested people are more likely than tired people to do better in school, not to mention they won’t fall asleep in calculus.

Ask any teenager how he or she is doing around 7:30 a.m. and an accurate response is usually “I’m tired,” at least, that’s the general statement I hear in the first few periods of the day.

If school was pushed to a later time, there’s a great chance that performance would soar, not to mention, there would probably be a lot of happy teenagers, who might finally have time to eat breakfast at the table.

Unfortunately, this probably won’t happen in the near future. To fight the sleepies, studies suggest letting in natural light (open the curtains) and to limit activities that over-stimulate the brain right before bedtime, such as action movies or high-intensity video games. In the meantime, know that teens should not feel lazy or be accused of being so simply because of the way their bodies react to their progression into adulthood. 

Kalena Thomhave is an intern with the Crestview News Bulletin.