Adolescents have a biological need for 8 to 10 hours per night. We know this from a series of studies where adolescents went to “sleep camp” and spent 3 weeks in a lab. They were allowed to catch up on lost sleep, and then sleep as much as they wanted. In this setting, adolescents naturally slept an average of 9.3 hours per night.

In the United States, 7 out of 10 adolescents get less than 8 hours of sleep. There is no reason to believe this is any different in the Littleton Public School District. Consider, if you child has to wake at 6:00 a.m., he/she would need to be asleep by at least 10:00 p.m. in order to obtain the *minimum* recommended 8 hours of sleep (which for most teens is not enough).

A lot! Right after falling asleep, growth hormone is released, so children literally grow in their sleep. In addition, in the first part of the night executive functioning is developing. This is necessary to help teens make good decisions, reduce risky behaviours, and control their moods. In the last part of the night, during REM (or dream) sleep memories form and learning consolidates. So by waking up too early, students are literally deprived of their dreams, not to mention the learning that is so critical to academic and life success.

Wouldn’t teens get more sleep if parents made them go to bed earlier and took away their technology?

It is very important for parents to set bedtimes, and for all  technology to be removed from the bedrooms. However, teens can’t simply fall asleep at 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. due to physical changes during puberty. Melatonin is a hormone released by the brain that controls the internal clock and prepares the body for sleeping. But during puberty, the timing of the melatonin release is delayed by up to 2 hours. This makes it nearly impossible for teens to fall asleep early. This shift is also seen in the morning hours, such that when we ask a teen to wake at 6:00 a.m. that is equivalent to asking an adult to wake at 4:00 a.m. An adolescent’s brain is biologically asleep at the time we ask them to wake up, often get behind the wheel of a car, and go to school and learn.

Every aspect of functioning is negatively impacted by not getting enough sleep.

• Students who miss out on only 1 hour of sleep per night for 5 nights have been shown to have increases in ADHD like behaviors (inattention and impulsivity).
• Similarly, students who go to bed 1 hour later for just 3 nights perform a full grade level below students who are getting enough sleep on tasks of short term memory, fine motor skills, and problem solving.
• Teens who do not get enough sleep have increased risk-taking behaviors and accidents.
• Negative mood is associated with insufficient sleep, with one study of over 30,000 students showing that for each hour of lost sleep there was a 38% increase in feeling sad or hopeless, and a 58% increase in teen suicide attempts.
• Insufficient sleep is directly related to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.
• Drowsy driving accidents increase. After 17 hours of wakefulness, reaction time, decision making, and concentration are impaired as if a person has a blood alcohol level of 0.05 (legal limit in Colorado).

• Teens should be able to wake relatively easy in the morning (i.e., get out of bed within 15 minutes of parent or alarm waking them).
• If a teen has to use multiple alarms or you throw water on them to wake them up, they are not getting enough sleep.
• Sleeping an extra 2 hours per night on weekends or school holidays is a sign your child is trying to catch up on lost sleep during the week.
• Falling asleep in school or other inappropriate places (e.g., during a party or celebration, at a sporting event, riding on a ski lift) is a sign she is not getting enough sleep.
• If you child’s mood or behavior positively change following a night of increased sleep, the other nights he/she is not getting enough sleep.