Years ago, Nelson Mandela famously said, "our children[including teenagers] are the rock on which our future will be built, our greatest asset as a nation" since they will be the emerging leaders, promotors of wealth, and stand to protect the people. While this statement is true, it is ironic given that the majority of American teenagers aren't getting the appropriate amount of sleep to appropriately learn and function in our society. This issue enraged Lisa Lewis, a mother of two in California, who noticed the sleep issue beginning to disrupt her own children. When driving her son to school, which started at 7:30 am, she constantly noticed him falling asleep in the backseat and being completely worn out when coming home. She wanted to find out what was causing him to feel lethargic and make a change that could help him and other kids like him.
Given the 2019 CDC reports, that less than 31% of teens are getting 8 hours of sleep, teenagers are definitely not receiving the appropriate rest. Yet, teenagers actually need between 8 and 10 hours of sleep, which is more than fully functioning adults. Lewis wanted to understand the reason for this phenomenon. She found that during puberty, the circadian rhythm of a teenager shifts, which in turn also shifts their body clock to a later schedule. This means that teenagers prone to waking up later and staying up later. Additionally, melatonin, which promotes sleep, tends to be released and recedes later in a teenager's body later than in an adult's body. With this information, it is clear that teens should be getting between eight to ten hours in order to function appropriately. With high schools starting class as early as 7 am, this lends itself for disaster for teens. This led Lewis to author a bill that mandates healthy secondary school starts times, requiring all middle schools to start after 8 am and all high schools to start after 8:30 am. This bill has been designed for California state legislation, and is modelled around the few, similar bills have been successful in areas like Seattle.
While Lewis does have preliminary evidence regarding the issue of sleep deprivation, it can be further proven on a neurobiological basis. From earlier studies we have known that extended wakefulness can cause increased sleep deprivation regardless of time. Yet, in a new study, Dr. Ravi Allada investigated the interactions of the circadian system and homeostatic systems in sleep regulation. In his paper, Circadian programming of the ellipsoid body sleep homeostat in Drosophila, researchers examined the role of the circadian clock genes in relation to sleep rebound. By using scheduled sleep deprivation with Drosophila flies, they measured the baseline sleep, sleep loss, and sleep gain to better understand how the flies maintained control during sleep deprivation. They found that specific clock neurons are affected by sleep buildup that can occur if one does not sleep well or receive enough sleep. With this information, they were able to conclude that homeostatic rebound is higher in the morning than in the evening. This provides clear evidence for why schools should begin later, since we need to morning time to effectively rebound and fully rest to prepare for our day.
With all the benefits of delayed school-day start time, hopefully, this bill will have a positive effect in California and extend across various states and districts in the country. Starting school after 8:30 would allow teens to get more, needed rest. This would in turn have great benefits to teenagers: emotional resilience, enhanced performance in school and other activities, better physical and mental health, to name a few. It would provide both personal and societal benefits, since teenagers are the ones who fuel our future.
Work Cited
Andreani, Tomas, et al. “Circadian Programming of the Ellipsoid Body Sleep Homeostat in Drosophila.”
eLife, vol. 11, 2022, https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.74327.
Villano, Matt. “Teens Are Facing a Sleep Deprivation Epidemic. Here's Why.” CNN, Cable News Network, 8 June 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/health/teen-sleep-deprivation-wellness/index.html.
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