High school students should sleep in

There’s a physiological reason why teenagers want to stay up late and sleep as long as they can in the morning. It has to do with the production of melatonin.

The body produces melatonin, a natural hormone related to our daily (circadian) rhythm, about an hour before we’re ready to fall asleep. Before adolescence, melatonin secretion starts about 9:30 PM. In teenagers, this doesn’t happen until an hour later. So teenagers aren’t ready to fall sleep — physiologically — until 11:30 PM or later. They like to sleep later because they still need the same amount of sleep each night as children in elementary school: 9.25 hours.

If school starts at 7:30 AM, teenagers don’t get enough sleep. The consequences include dozing off during the day, losing the ability to pay attention, flawed judgment, and poor decisions.

Many schools have decided to delay the start of the school day for high school students. The results: students get more sleep, of course, but they also contribute more to class discussion, doze off less, miss fewer school days, arrive on time more often, report less depression and irritability, and have fewer driving accidents. A study in Lexington, Kentucky showed a 17% drop in car crashes among students who started school an hour later, compared to an 8% increase in a comparable control group.

A recent article in The Journal of the American Medical Association notes that electronic devices in the bedroom make a significant contribution to lack of sleep for teenagers. This includes cell phones with text messaging, TVs, and computers with video games and Internet access. Teens with four or more of these devices in the bedroom slept about 30 minutes less each night.

Update 7/5/10:

Study: Delaying School Start Time Could Improve Teen Mood, Behavior, Health (School Library Journal)

Just 30 more minutes of sleep each night could have a huge impact on teen alertness in class, as well as improve their attendance and tardiness in school, says a new study of 200 students in grades 9-12 at a private Rhode Island high school.

After two-months of delaying the start of the school day by a half hour–from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.–students reported improved motivation, and less depression and fatigue, say researchers … whose findings were reported in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Sources:

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Lynne Lamberg, High Schools Find Later Start Time Helps Students’ Health and Performance, The Journal of the American Medical Association, June 3, 2009, Vol. 301 No. 21, p. 2200-2201