Not
too long ago, I was a teenager myself, and one of the worst things in my
life (I am sure there are many out there who would say the same) was waking up
early for school. The torture of waking up early for six days a week is the one
thing I don’t miss about my school days. Things didn’t get any better but then
again that’s life.
Now
parents never really cooperate with your intent to sleep when you please and
wake up when you feel like. One of the limitations of being a teenager is your
ability to reason or how parents would like to term ‘argue’. Many a times we
stall without valid points or any points at all. To help teenagers with the
same (courtesy of Bora Zivkovic) here are some of the points as to why you should get some
extended time to sleep!
There
are clear scientific data demonstrating that sleep phase in adolescents is
markedly delayed in comparison to younger and older people. According to him,
presumably under the influence of the sudden surge of sex steroid hormones, the
circadian clock phase-advances in teen years. It persists in this state until
one is almost 30 years old. After that, it settles into its adult pattern.
Now
he does account the fact that, we are talking about human populations, not
individuals – “ you can surely give me an anecdote about someone who
does not follow this pattern. That’s fine. Of course there are exceptions, as
there is vast genetic (and thus phenotypic) variation in human populations.
This does not in any way diminish the findings of population studies.
Everyone, from little
children, through teens and young adults to elderly, belongs to one of the
‘chronotypes’. You can be a more or less extreme lark (phase-advanced, tend to
wake up and fall asleep early), a more or less extreme owl (phase-delayed, tend
to wake up and fall asleep late). You can be something in between – some kind
of “median” (I don’t want to call this normal, because the whole spectrum is
normal) chronotype.
No matter where you
are on these continua, once you hit puberty your clock will phase-delay. If you
were an owl to begin with, you will become a more extreme owl for about a dozen
years. If you are an extreme lark, you’ll be a less extreme lark. In the late
20s, your clock will gradually go back to your baseline chronotype and retain
it for the rest of your life.
The important thing to
remember is that chronotypes are not social constructs (although work-hours and
school-hours are). No amount of bribing or threatening can make an adolescent
fall asleep early. Don’t blame video games or TV. Even if you take all of these
away (and you should that late at night, and replace them with books) and
switch off the lights, the poor teen will toss and turn and not fall asleep
until midnight or later, thus getting only about 4-6 hours of sleep until it is
time to get up and go to school again."
He
states that for teenagers, 6am is practically midnight – their bodies have
barely begun to sleep.
Another
important aspect to consider is that lack of sleep has a well-documented effect
on mood. Teenagers are not that moody, at least most of them are not!
“ They are just barely
“functional” (instead of “optimal”) and walk through life like zombies because
they are operating on 4-8 hours of sleep instead of 9 hours (optimal for teens,
it goes down to about 8 for adults). Of course they are moody.”
He does explains more serious issues to consider from a
health and safety perspective. But
the advice he adds for parents and teachers is quite good although I doubt
it will have any influence!
“ Teens are almost
adults. The current generation of teens, perhaps because of a closer and
tighter contact with their parents than any generation before, is the most
serious, mature and responsible generation I have seen. Give them a benefit of
the doubt. Just because you were into mischief and hated your parents when you
were their age does not mean that today’s kids are the same.”
“ Finally, rethink all
those extra activities you are forcing the teens to do: sports, art, music, etc.
In teen’s minds, the day does not start with the beginning of school in the
morning. We may think that we are at work most of our day. Teens do not
– they consider their day to begin at the time school-day is over. Their
day begins in the afternoon. School is something they have to deal with before
they can have their day. Realize this and give them time and space to do with
their day what they want. Do not push them to do things that you think they’ll
need to get into Top Universities. Let them be – leave them alone. Then they’ll go to
sleep at a normal time.”
Main
article:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/05/20/when-should-schools-start-in-the-morning/
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