The review article "An update on adolescent sleep: New evidence
informing the perfect storm model" by Stephanie Crowley et al. discusses
current understanding about adolescent sleep patterns and the consequences of
them. There is a section that highlights the circadian barrier that comes from
early start times in high school, especially being shifted after middle school.
A key finding was "that the melatonin onset phase (i.e., the circadian
timing system) for these adolescents was 40 min later in 10th versus 9th
grade" (Crowley, 2018). 10th graders experience a natural shift in their
circadian system that makes them feel tired 40 minutes later than their younger
selves, and therefore require a later wake time to make sure they get enough
sleep. So, to suit their biology, 10th graders should have later school start
times than previous years, but instead they have even earlier ones! When their
biology says that they should be sleeping at a certain time in the morning, it
can not be constructive to have a student instead sitting in a classroom trying
to learn content; their brain should still be resting. Having this disconnect
in so many young people naturally leads to behavioral and cognitive
consequences, so as time has progressed to have so many students in this
position, it makes sense that more behavioral and cognitive performance issues
are popping up too. As these school times as well as many other psychosocial
pressures weigh on adolescents and drive them into sleep dept, there could be
major decreases in focus, attention, and academic performance as a result.
Lacking in focus, attention, and academic performance are all common
traits of ADHD and other behavioral disorders. In the past decade, there has
been a major increase in the diagnoses of these conditions, and many more
outwardly wondering if they may have one of these disorders.
On the topic of ADHD, I read the Neuroscience article "Prior Sleep
and Age Sculpt the Brain’s Awake Signals" that discusses a research paper
that analyzed young people and sleep in a different way than the article I've
already discussed. It was discussed here that expected differences are to be
seen in the brain activity of ADHD and neurotypical children, and the previous
research in the field found activity differences between the sleeping brains of
ADHD children compared to neurotypical children. However, when this research
was conducted on their waking brains, the same differences were not observed.
This suggests that the observed differences are not due to the disorder itself,
but must be something else related to the sleep quality of these children. The
question then becomes, what caused the differences in brain activity between
different children while they were sleeping that didn't occur while they were
awake? Additionally, these findings when they were sleeping were such a way
that they were accepted as explained by the disorder, and only further research
discovered differently. More work is needed to be done to be sure, but the
article suggests that these differences could be caused by sleep dept and the
outcomes that it leaves on an individual, sleeping and awake. When it comes to
children with ADHD and those without, "the variability in their brain
signals... suggests that many observed brain patterns may actually be signals
of sleep debt rather than the disorder itself," (NeuroscieneNews, 2026).
The connection I made when reading both of these articles may be a bit of
a stretch, but it is a potential connection that could be a target of future
research. With the research about adolescent sleep quality and subsequent
consequences in their academic and personal lives, I wonder if these results
are being observed more frequently than expected over these past couple
decades. Something I know has been increasing in diagnoses and frequency in
society is ADHD and other behavioral disorders. I have heard a lot of
skepticism over conditions like this because of how much they are popping up,
and how they seem to affect too many people. Based on both of these papers, I
think it is possible that this increase in behavioral disorder prevalence is
related to the decrease in sleep quality across so many adolescents these days.
If there are a lot of young people who are experiencing behavioral
difficulties, especially in school, yet it seems to be totally normal and
something they can't change, it may be due to the normalization of such
pressure filled lives and our society that expects sleep to be sidelined for
other priorities. If the sleep dept is normalized to an individual, then their
behavior is also normalized, at least in the sense that it is seen as an innate
part of the individual rather than just a consequence of struggling at a
particular time. Whether or not this sleep-disorder correlation is true, I
think it simply highlights the importance of getting a comprehensive and
professional opinion of ones behavior, if possible, if there are ever concerns
of typical and atypical behavior. Maybe an individual is struggling in many
similar ways as someone with ADHD, but they can improve based on just their
environment, which is a solution that people who really do have the disorder no
not have. This further research could assist in understanding adolescents more
and realizing the depth of pressure they are under, and this can lead to better
assistance and intervention for those who are struggling, behavioral disorder
or not.
References:
Crowley,
Stephanie et al. "An Update on Adolescent Sleep: New Evidence Informing
the Perfect Storm Model." Elsevier, 2018.
Neuroscience
News. “Prior Sleep and Age Sculpt the Brain’s Awake Signals.” Neuroscience
News, 27 Apr. 2026,
neurosciencenews.com/awake-eeg-sleep-brain-development-30614/
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