Teens benefit from later school start time

An excellent, extended overview in the LA Times on studies that indicate a later school start time is better for teen health.

The medical reasons:

As kids approach puberty, scientists now know, there is a two-hour shift in when their bodies release melatonin, the hormone that causes sleepiness. As a result, teens and preteens find it impossible to fall asleep until about 11 p.m., even if they try to go to bed earlier. Yet teenagers still need an average of 9.25 hours of slumber each night.

On top of the shift in natural sleeping and waking times, … there is also a delay in when a severe dip in alertness occurs during the early morning hours. In adults, this low point hits between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.; in adolescents, it falls between about 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. That means that, while their alarm clocks are telling teens to get out of bed and demanding that their brains perform, their bodies are screaming at them to keep sleeping.

The melatonin shift may happen as early as age 10 or 11.

Here are the health issues of early start times:

Overtired kids, studies suggest, struggle with depression. … In addition to the mood, behavior and learning issues, scientists are starting to uncover more subtle ways that such chronic sleep loss can hurt kids. Some studies, for example, show that sleep deprivation compromises the immune system. Others suggest that, with too little sleep, the body releases higher levels of hormones that induce hunger, possibly contributing to growing rates of obesity.

Tired teens may also be more vulnerable to falling asleep at the wheel. … To stay awake, young people often turn to coffee, soda, energy drinks and other caffeinated beverages.

One objection to later school start times is that teens will just stay up later. Here’s what one study found:

Sleep seems to beget sleep, the study suggested. Even though the new schedule started just 30 minutes later, students actually went to bed 15 minutes earlier and got 45 more minutes of sleep each day. When interviewed, kids said they felt so much better from even a little bit of extra sleep that they were motivated to go to bed sooner and sleep even more. Owens suspects that the extra sleep also helped them get their homework done more efficiently, affording them extra time in the evening to wind down and get to bed.

This information is not new. Recent studies continue to confirm what has been learned about teens and sleep. The subject was discussed over a year ago the the Journal of the American Medical Association. Pediatricians should be aware of this.

School boards are conservative by nature and reluctant to make changes. If parents educate themselves on the facts, however, they may be able to exert their influence locally and benefit their own children.

One expert on sleep research comments in this article: “The brain is probably going through as rapid development during the adolescent years as it does during the first year of life” and adds “sleep is brain food.” It’s not uncommon for infants to sleep 16 hours day.

Resources:

Image source: TIme

Emily Sohn, Later school start times and Zzzs to A’s, The Los Angeles Times, August 23, 2010