Sleepy Teenagers
- Keshiv Tandon
- Nov 22, 2020
- 2 min read
Anyone who's ever been a teenager will know the struggle of waking up every morning. Teenagers are notoriously sleepy, going to bed late at night and waking up early for school - not a good combination for getting a solid eight hours of sleep. For many, the solution seems simple: sleep earlier. If one sleeps earlier, they will be able to get more sleep. However, there is more to this than meets the eye with teenagers. The secret to sleep is in melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that tells your body when it should sleep and when it should wake. When it is time to sleep, melatonin is secreted and you feel tired. The common drug melatonin has the same effect. However, scientists have found that for some reason, melatonin is secreted later in the night for teenagers, and it stops being secreted later in the morning. While a normal adult will begin secreting melatonin at 10:00 p.m., teenagers secrete it at around 1:00 a.m., which is three hours later. In essence, most teens are biologically preconditioned not to feel sleepy until one in the morning. In order to get the recommended eight hours of sleep, the teenager would have to wake up at about 9:00 a.m., but most schools start at eight or earlier. Luckily, there is a bright side: school districts are becoming more cognizant of the struggles teens are having with waking up. To counter this, some schools have pushed their starting times back to 9 or 9:30 in the morning, allowing the teenagers to get more sleep. Some studies have found that after this shift, teenagers began to get higher test scores, be more alert, go to school on time, and depression levels even lowered. (Teens, School & Sleep: A Complex Relationship) Now, the only mystery that remains is why teenagers release melatonin so late.

Works Cited
“Teens, School & Sleep: A Complex Relationship.” Sleep Foundation, National Sleep Foundation, 19 Nov. 2020, www.sleepfoundation.org/excessive-sleepiness/performance/teens-school-sleep-complex-relationship.
I have learnt something valuable from the article on Sleepy Teenagers. I wish I had known this earlier when I could have changed the schedule of our class offerings. It would have been wise to start undergraduate classes at 10am rather than 8 am with last class ending at 6pm. Aside from enhanced learning it would have increased attendance in the morning classes. I guess it is never too late to learn something new. Thank you much for writing on such important topics.