EQ; Why is the number of hours of sleep affected by the life of

teens?
Hard Lesson in Sleep for Teenagers by Jane E. Brody OCTOBER
20, 2014

Within a week of my grandsons first year in high school, getting enough

sleep had already become an issue.
Their concerned mother questioned whether lights out at midnight or
one a.m. and awakening at 7 or 7:30 a.m. to get to school on time
provided enough sleep for 14-year-olds to navigate a demanding school
day.
The boys, of course, said yes, especially since they could catch up by
sleeping late on weekends. But the professional literature on the sleep
needs of adolescents says otherwise.
Few Americans these days get the hours of sleep optimal for their age,
but experts agree that teenagers are more likely to fall short than
anyone else.
Researchers report that the average adolescent needs eight and a half to
nine and a half hours of sleep each night. But in a poll taken in 2006 by
the National Sleep Foundation, less than 20 percent reported getting
that much rest on school nights.
With the profusion of personal electronics, the current percentage is
believed to be even worse. A study in Fairfax, Va., found that only 6
percent of children in the 10th grade and only 3 percent in the 12th
grade get the recommended amount of sleep. Two in three teens were
found to be severely sleep-deprived, losing two or more hours of sleep
every night. The causes can be biological, behavioral or environmental.
And the effect on the well-being of adolescents on their health and
academic potential can be profound, according to a policy statement
issued in August by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Sleep is not optional. Its a health imperative, like eating, breathing
and physical activity, Dr. Judith A. Owens, the statements lead author,
said in an interview. This is a huge issue for adolescents.
Insufficient sleep in adolescence increases the risks of high blood
pressure and heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity, said Dr.
Owens, pediatric sleep specialist at Childrens National Health System
in Washington. Sleeplessness is also linked to risk-taking behavior,
depression and suicidal ideation, and car accidents.

Lack of sleep can be fatal, she said. The level of impairment

associated with sleep-deprived driving is equivalent to driving drunk.
Would you let a kid drive who just consumed three or four beers? Well,
guess what kids do that every day.
She recommends that parents make getting enough sleep a condition
for permission to drive.
School start times dont help the situation. In a 2008 study in Virginia
Beach, where classes began at 7:20 to 7:25 a.m., the crash rate for 16- to
18-year-olds was 41 percent higher than in adjacent Chesapeake, Va.,
where school started at 8:40 to 8:45. The lead author of the study, Dr.
Robert Vorona of Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, suggested
that starting the school day later could result in less sleep deprivation
and more alert drivers.
Insufficient sleep also impairs judgment, decision-making skills and the
ability to curb impulses, which are in a critical stage of development in
adolescence, Dr. Owens said.
And with the current intense concern about raising academic
achievement, it is worth noting that a study by Kyla Wahlstrom of
9,000 students in eight Minnesota public high schools showed that
starting school a half-hour later resulted in an hours more sleep a night
and an increase in the student's grade point averages and standardized
test scores.
When the students were more alert, they were able to get their work
done faster and thus get to bed earlier, Dr. Owens said. It takes a
sleepy student five hours to do three hours of homework.
Sleep deprivation can also have a negative effect on mood. Inadequate
sleep raises the risk of depression, and sleeping less than eight hours a
night has been linked to a nearly threefold increased risk of suicide
attempts, after other potential causes are accounted for. The risk of
obesity is also increased by sleep deprivation. A study in 2002
estimated that for each hour of sleep lost, the odds of an adolescents
being obese rose by 80 percent.
Pediatricians, parents and schools need to pay much more attention to
the sleep needs of adolescents than they now do. When children reach
puberty, a shift in circadian rhythm makes it harder for them to fall
asleep early enough to get the requisite number of hours and still make
it to school on time.

A teenagers sleep-wake cycle can shift as much as two hours, making it

difficult to fall asleep before 11 p.m. If school starts at 8 or 8:30 (and
many start an hour earlier), its not possible to get enough sleep. Based
on biological sleep needs, a teenager who goes to sleep at 11 p.m. (ha!)
should be getting up around 8 a.m.
Middle-school and high school teachers commonly say many students
are half asleep or fully asleep during the days first period.
Adding to the adolescent shift in circadian rhythm are myriad electronic
distractions that cut further into sleep time, like smartphones, iPods,
computers and televisions. A stream of text messages, tweets, and
postings on Facebook and Instagram keep many awake long into the
night. Just the light from a screen can suppress melatonin, the hormone
in the brain that signals sleep.
Parents should consider instituting an electronic curfew and perhaps
even forbid sleep-distracting devices in the bedroom, Dr. Owens said.
Although my grandsons, among many others, use a smartphone as an
alarm clock, a real clock that doesnt have Twitter could easily replace it.
Beyond the bedroom, many teenagers lead over scheduled lives that can
lead to short nights. Sports, clubs, volunteer work and paid employment
can cut seriously into the time they need for schoolwork and result in
delayed bedtimes.
Parental pressure to do well in school can also be a factor. For example,
a 2005 study of more than 1,400 adolescents in South Korea, where
great emphasis is placed on academic success, found that they averaged
4.9 hours of sleep a night.
Also at risk are many teenagers from low-income and minority families,
where overcrowding, excessive noise and safety concerns can make it
difficult to get enough restful sleep, the academy statement said.
Trying to compensate for sleep deprivation on weekends can further
comprise an adolescents sleep-wake cycle by inducing permanent jet
lag. Sleeping late on weekends shifts their internal clock, making it even
harder to get to sleep Sunday night and wake up on time for school
Monday morning.
A version of this article appears in print on 10/21/2014, on page D5 of the NewYork edition of the New
York Times with the headline: Hard Lesson in Sleep for Teenagers.