NW Laboratory Home

PIRC home page
topics.jpg_[20kb]
Archived Hot Topics
click above for past articles
Hot Topics
not a linkHot TopicsFacts about PIRCEstablished LocationsWWW LinksChild Care

8/30/99 -
Adolescent Sleep Times and Academic Performance

A U.S. News & World Report, article August 9, 1999, looks at what is currently a really hot topic in education. The article entitled SLUGABEDS: Why Teens need more snooze time contains important research findings about sleep requirements for teenagers. With school beginning for most of the nation's children in less than a month it is a timely article with important information for parents and teens alike.

According to author Shannon Brownlee, sleep physiologist Mary Carskadon, Ph.D has conducted research with findings that indicate that teenagers require 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep a night and that their biological clocks are set so they actually need more sleep than they did as children. Among the important findings reported in the article are those that pertain to readiness to perform in school. Consistent with findings of other researchers, Carskadon says, Kids who have to get up before their biological clocks have buzzed miss out on the phase of sleep that boosts memory and learning. Besides this important piece of information indicating that the extra sleep time is needed specifically in the morning, she also mentions, (they) become cranky and depressed; their memory and judgement are impaired…they perform poorly on tests of reaction time. The brain emits a sleep-inducing chemical called melatonin, and teens who get fewer than the necessary nine hours of sleep, in Carskadons's words, sit in classrooms with melatonin levels that are telling the students it is nighttime.

The scientist goes on to say she has found that teens who get six and one-half hours or less of sleep earn C's and D's, while those who get the most sleep earn A's and B's. A JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) article, September 18, 1996, Some Schools Agree to Let Sleeping Teens Lie, concurs, adding that the high achievers averaged about 35 minutes more sleep per day than the low achievers.

A finding consistent among resources cited in this Hot Topics article indicates that teens' biological clocks evidently slow down during adolescence and that might explain why they so often aren't sleepy until very late. There's a region of cells in the suprachiasmatic nuclei at the base of the hypothalamus region of the brain that function as our intrinsic clock, Dr. John W. Shepard Jr. of Mayo Clinic's Sleep Disorder Center explains. It's believed that in teen-agers this biological clock may slow down. This may explain why some teen-agers are not sleepy until 2 a.m.--because their slow intrinsic biological clock might think it's only 11 p.m.

According to a sleep study conducted by the University of Minnesota in 17 school districts, Sleep deprivation (for teenagers, fewer than 9 hours of sleep per night) is associated with information processing and memory deficits; increased irritability, anxiety, and depression; hyper-sexuality; decreased creativity and ability to handle complex tasks.

At this point parents may be asking, So, what can we do? It's a good question, and at this point, we are left without any ready answers. Furthermore, the experts do caution that seemingly simple changes like sleeping late on weekends may further mess up teens' internal clocks. It is suggested that kids catch up on weekends if necessary, but go to bed within an hour of their usual bedtime and sleep only an hour or two later than usual. On school days when they don't get enough sleep, biological clocks can be reset to some extent by bright lights. So, open those curtains wide, or turn on the bright lights!

We know that teens balance a number of items requiring their time, often with little or no choice. They have homework, household chores, extra-curricular activities such as music lessons, drama, sports jobs, and requirements on their time for friends and family. Add the slow down in their biological clocks that keeps them awake late into the night to these other various pressures of teen life, and it becomes clear that it is close to impossible for them to get the necessary nine hours of sleep on a school night. In spite of the inconvenience to adults and our schedules, perhaps the school districts cited in some of the related articles (Adolescent Sleep, Congressmen say Schools Can't Teach Kids When the Kids are Asleep) have the only answer-later school-start times for high schools. The stakes for teenagers and their academic needs are high and it is clear that we must address this issue with care.

Of course parents know that teenagers are not the only ones with issues around sleep and school. Most of us at some time or other become concerned that our children aren't getting enough sleep for optimum school performance. The younger ones often balk at getting to bed on time, or have trouble falling asleep. Look in Hot Topics soon for ideas for easing the bedtime blues.

More information and resources are available on today's topic by clicking on any of the hyperlinks in this article. Hyperlinks are in color and have a line under them. Move your mouse to any of them and when you see a hand, click the left mouse button once to check out the information in that Web site. To come back to this article, click on the BACK button at the top of the screen.

For more information move through any of the sites that are hyperlinked above or check those below.


| PIRC Home | Hot Topics
| Facts about PIRC | Established Locations | Links | Childcare |

This document's URL is:

Home | Up & Coming | Programs & Projects: Child and Family Program | People | Products & Publications | Topics

© 2001 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory


Email Webmaster
Tel. 503.275.9500

NW Lab Home