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Home › Articles › Health › Raising Night Owls

Raising Night Owls

How to Save Your Teen from Sleep Deprivation

By Kelly Burgess

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Based on these facts, the ideal time for teenagers to go to bed would be 9 p.m. every single night and to stick with that schedule. However, even if they have nothing else to do, I know from personal experience thatteens feels entitled to a later bedtime simply becausethey're older. No amount of scientific argument will ever convince a 13-year-old that he should go to bed at the same time as his 9-year-old brother.

Waking up Schools
Some schools have finally acknowledged the overwhelming evidence and adjusted their school schedules accordingly. There's been no formal study of the effects of these schedule changes, but Dr. Simon suspects that if there were, the findings would include less depression, less juvenile delinquency and a decrease in absenteeism and tardiness.

Still, says Dr. Simon, it's not enough. He says that school schedules are made for the convenience of the adults, not the children, and making a change of that magnitude is not something most districts want to attempt. Furthermore, the problem goes deeper than just school or schoolwork. Our entire society, from the time children are old enough to sign up for their first organized activity, is so heavily scheduled that sleep deprivation is almost a given.

Ironically, in direct contrast to the general consensus that a busy teen is too busy to get into trouble, Dr. Simon says studies show that the super-achieving teens, those who are heavily involved in sports, academics, have jobs and volunteer, are the most likely to use drugs. The next most likely are highly-achieving teens who may be involved only in sports, academics and work a few hours a week. After that comes the group who has maybe only a couple of extracurricular activities. The least likely group is the teens who do nothing but go to school. One theory for this is that tired teens are more likely to use drugs to keep awake.

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