Dec. 15, 2008

Any of us who have teenagers know what a pain in the you-know-what they can be to get up in the morning.

I remember the epic wake-up-get-dressed-get-to-the-bus battles when my daughter was a teenager. Everyone was pretty miserable.

Now it turns out there is actually a biological reason for this: Teenagers need more sleep than adults (a minimum of 8 hours and some need as much as 10) because of their sleep patterns naturally shift to a later bedtime and a later rising time during teen years. Their rapidly developing bodies and hormonal fluctuations offer continual physiological challenges.

There could be a simple answer.

Schools that have shifted to later start times, say from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., says the National Sleep Foundation, find measurable positive results:
• Better academic performance
• Less absenteeism
• Fewer car accidents

Experts say the later start time doesn’t mean that teens get to bed later (typical teen bedtime is 11 p.m. on school nights), but that they get an hour extra sleep each night. That extra five hours of sleep a week can make a big difference in health and alertness.

“Most high school students need an alarm clock or a parent to wake them on school days. They are like zombies getting ready for school and find it hard to be alert and pay attention in class. Because they are sleep deprived, they are sleepy all day and cannot do their best,” says the National Sleep Foundation.

So if your teen goes to bed at 10:30 or 11 p.m., letting him sleep until 7:30 a.m. could make everyone’s life easier.

It’s also important for everyone to lighten up a bit. I can’t resist adding this hilarious YouTube video called The Mom Song. I laughed until tears rolled down my cheeks.