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Wake Up, Sleepy
Teens!
PAGE 2
BY TARA ARONSON
Copyright 1997 by Parents' Press
Photo © FPG International
How Much Sleep Is Enough?
While everyone requires different amounts of sleep to function at peak performance levels, studies show that teenagers need at least 9.25 hours of shut-eye to function properly in school, compared to the 8 hours of snoozing needed by adults.
To wake up in time to shower, eat and arrive at school by 7:30 a.m., adolescents need to be asleep by 9 p.m. And therein lies the problem: Carskadon and Wolfson found that biological changes that take place in puberty keep kids from being able to fall asleep as early as when they were younger.
"I've had many parents talk to me at a meeting and say, 'Let's just force them to go to bed an hour earlier'," said Kyla Wahlstrom, associate director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) at the University of Minnesota.
"Adolescents don't feel hormonally sleepy until 11 or 12. It has to do with circadian rhythms that govern every cell in the body. There are no management techniques that can change basic cellular rhythms. Why fight it?"
Changing School Start Times
One 40,000-student school district in Minneapolis agreed. In 1996, Edina High School forwarded its start time to 8:30 a.m. from 7:20 a.m; the extra hour made an "extraordinary" difference in the students' performance, Wahlstrom said.
"I've done focus groups with the first period teachers, and they can't believe these are the same kids," she said. "Historically, we know that 20 to 30 percent of kids will sleep through the first hour, even during the most exciting topics - rock music, teenage sexuality - normally topics where you could bear a pin drop in the classroom among this age group."
The later-arriving students no longer eat in class to stay awake, and are fully participating in first-period classes, she said.
Such recent research into adolescent sleep patterns has confirmed what parents have feared all along: that a lack of sleep affects grades. It may also lead to mood swings, make teens more vulnerable to illnesses and catastrophic accidents - such as crashing the family car - and can lead to drug and alcohol use.
Still, the Edina case study, part of a 17-district CAREI School Start Time Study, concluded that a later start time "helps some, but not as much as had been hoped." School sleep lag was still evident in students whose alertness, in general, peaks at around 3 p.m., about the time most teens are heading off to after-school jobs.
The Job Link
Yet early high school start times aren't the only reason adolescents are losing sleep. Almost everything, experts say, conspires to keep teenagers up late: schoolwork, social life, the Internet, jobs.
Especially the latter.
"We in the field are concerned about adolescent work schedules," says Wolfson. "I have the data from the 3,120 Rhode Island high school students, and similar data from other researchers, showing that more than 50 percent of 11th and 12th graders work 20 hours or more a week.
"There's a real numbers issue here - as we add work hours, we're decreasing time for sleep," she said. "Parents need to think twice about pushing teenagers to be working a lot. Five to 10 hours is one thing, but 15 to 20 hours is adding problems to an already troubling picture."
What Helps?
Including parents in the equation is the first step in solving the problem, experts agree. Acknowledging that the grumpy adolescent refusing to go to bed or get up on time isn't being intentionally problematic, and working with her to find a regular, relaxing bedtime routine to unwind from the day's activities, can help open everyone's eyes, Wolfson says.
Students juggling a full schedule can be encouraged to take a short early afternoon nap - one in which the alarm clock is set - to give them the energy to do homework or pursue an activity. And be sure to cut out caffeine in all forms - sodas, iced tea, chocolate - from mid-afternoon on, she says.
"And then there's the issue of late-night activities," Wolfson says. "This is the time to do more settling-down activities, such as reading a book and finishing up homework."
Keep Internet surfing and action flicks to a minimum, or confine them to the early evening hours - both stimulate the mind instead of letting it drift toward sleep time. And cut out late-night phone chats altogether, she says.
When morning rolls around, pull open the curtains and let the sun shine in or turn on the bright lights - it's the most effective way to set sleepy bodies into wake mode. Finally, help kids to understand what's going on with their changing bodies.
"Once they understand why they have trouble getting up in the morning, they're relieved to understand it's something they do have some control over," she says.
And the next time you wonder what your teenager is doing at 8 a.m., chances are a whole lot of learning will be going on.
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