We don’t know about you, but many of us got the “Lazybones” or “Sleepyhead” moniker when we were teenagers and didn’t want to get out of bed on school mornings.
“You’re sleeping your life away!” Mom or Dad complained on the weekends when we finally got to catch some extra Zzzs. We may have felt a bit guilty, but we were ohh sooo tired.
While it may seem to parents like their adolescents just want to lay in bed all day, scientific research suggests that maybe teens aren’t lazy—maybe they actually need the sleep they crave so much!
The American Academy of Pediatrics thinks so. These doctors want later school start times so teens can sleep later, according to a report released Aug. 25.
Adolescents need more sleep than adults, on average: about 8.5 to 9.5 hours per night. Children do, too. But the difference with teens is that their natural sleep schedule shifts to about two hours later than it was when they were younger. So teens want to sleep later and go to sleep later, too. This means a 10-year-old might hit the hay at 9pm and wake at 7-ish, but a few years later, that same child won’t want to be in bed before 11.
What happens when kids stay up late but then have to get up early? Research findings vary, but a 2014 poll from the National Sleep Foundation found that more than half of parents estimate their 15- to 17-year-olds sleep less than 7 hours per night.
Research also tends to support the argument that later school times yield healthier, safer teens who do better in school and achieve higher test scores.
It’s no secret that, at Urban Mattress, we’re all about getting great sleep. After all, quality sleep yields better waking hours!
And now that pediatricians are weighing in, it seems like theirs may be a voice worth listening to. Plus, it goes without saying that we would all benefit from more rested, safer, cheerier and higher-scoring adolescents among us.
But there are challenges to this change, such as expensive logistical shifts for school bus schedules. Later start times would also make it harder for teens to work after-school jobs. Some have argued that the costs of making school starts later outweigh the benefits.
What do you think? We’d love to hear from you!
As always, Sleep Tight, Urbanites!