Tired Teens and Our Responses

by Olivia Geer ‘15

Teens do not like waking up early, but then again who does? Parents and teachers across the country complain about how moody and tired teens are, but whose fault is it? Studies have shown that a teen’s sleep pattern is biologically determined and waking up early disrupts that. Many doctors and psychologists have studied this theory all coming up on common ground that, in fact, teens are sleep deprived because of school starting so early.  Some teens are up as early as 5:30am!

Some schools have actually adjusted their start times to later in the morning and have said that students’ grades and behavior have improved. So why are some schools still not changing their times? Some parents have agreed that starting later would be more beneficial for them because their children would be on the same schedule they are. A school in Oklahoma that pushed back their start times has reported that there have been less accidents among student drivers.

Doctors looked further into the whole biological clock concept and came up with information that says there are sleep inducing hormones in teens, melatonin, that do not affect teens until as late as 11pm. Having teens wake up at 6am when they are going to sleep no earlier than 11pm seems a bit ridiculous. So why haven’t other schools agreed to push back their times? Well, schools tend to stagger their start times to reduce cost on transportation when using buses. Overall it seems schools are more worried about their financial state than the health benefits of their students.