Every teen struggle with getting up in the morning and it isn't all to blame on staying up late or being on their phone, science might suggest it's none of those things. In class, Dr. Crowley caught my attention with her team's research on adolescent sleep. When I was in high school, I had a very difficult time getting up in the morning no matter what time I went to bed the night before. As I listened to the talk, I learned that it wasn't mainly my lifestyle choices, it was a combination of biology and society that she called a "Perfect Storm" (Crowley et al., 2018). The Perfect Storm model focuses on two systems that regulate sleep, the homeostatic system, and the circadian clock.
The Homeostatic system tracks how long you have been awake and builds "sleep pressure" correctly. In young kids this builds up quickly and means that the child can stay up until past midnight and not feel particularly tired (Crowley et al., 2018). This is basic biology of the system and not the child entirely being awake due to outside factors. The circadian clock controls the timing of being awake and going to sleep. During puberty the clock shifts to a later setting meaning for teens they can feel more alert later in the day and be more awake later into the night compared to adults. This is where the later starts during high school can benefit the teen because their bodies are wired to sleep later into the morning. From the studies findings, teens need around 9 hours of sleep, but most teens are getting about 7 hours instead (Crowley et al., 2018).
According to Crowley et al. (2018), screens do play a factor in disrupting the circadian rhythm but it isn't the main problem, it is just making it worse. If screen time is over 1.5 hours this plays a major role in the teens ability to fall asleep and get enough. Since biology already keeps teens alert later into the day it gives them more time to also be on their devices for longer, and with exposure to blue light, their circadian clock gets pushed back even further. When sleep is cut short, it can become very dangerous. Not only do you feel more tired, but life's stresses become heavier due to fatigue teens experience. From research, teens decline in attention, working memory, and executive function. Sleeping in on the weekends isn't enough to flip these results. If a teen is suffering from a lack of sleep, cramming for an exam is even harder and can be counterproductive. Being low on sleep impairs the kind of memory consolidation needed to retain that new material. This doesn't just have consequences on academics but also mood, mental health, weight, and safety. This also increases depression, higher risk taking, and higher rates of vehicle crashes.
In October of 2019, California's governor, Gavin Newsom, made California the first state to legally mandate later school start times. Under the law, high schools weren't allowed to start before 8:30 am, and middle schools weren't allowed to begin before 8 am (Cohen, 2019). Crowley et al. actually provides the exact evidence that supports this law. Analysis concluded that the later start times saw improvement in minutes of sleep by 25 to 77 minutes. This resulted in less daytime sleepiness, better grades, improved attendance, and fewer crashes from teen drivers (Crowley et al., 2018). Building school schedules around a teens biology comes with many positives and its being experimented right now in California and hopefully other states use those results and think about making a change for their middle and high schools.
Crowley, S. J., Wolfson, A. R., Tarokh, L., & Carskadon, M. A. (2018). An update on adolescent sleep: New evidence informing the perfect storm model. Journal of Adolescence, 67, 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2018.06.001
Cohen, J. (2019, October 20). California is pushing back school start times. The move could sweep the nation — or backfire. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/california-pushing-back-school-start-times-move-could-sweep-nation-n1068641
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