Teen Sleep Deprivation A Serious Problem

Aug. 21, 2000 -- Think you're sleep-deprived? Consider the schedule of this typical 14-year-old:

He rises at 6 a.m. to go running. Then he dresses, eats breakfast, and arrives at high school in time for his first class at 7:40. After school, there are piano lessons and homework, in addition to Boy Scouts and other activities. He usually falls asleep by 10 or 11 p.m. -- and must fight the temptation to doze throughout his morning classes the next day.

But wait, you say. He's managing nearly eight hours a night -- an amount some working parents would kill for. What's wrong with that?

Plenty, according to sleep experts. Not only do many teens keep busy schedules, but biological changes in their bodies mean that they need more sleep than ever -- nine to 10 hours per night, for most -- and that they are naturally inclined to go to bed later. The problem is so serious that a few high schools across the country have begun starting classes later in the day.

"This is a much bigger problem than people think," says Richard D. Simon, Jr., MD, medical director of the Kathryn Severyns Dement Sleep Disorder Center in Walla Walla, Wash. "They underestimate the problems of being sleepy in the daytime and how it impairs mood and affects performance."

Sleep deprivation can even be fatal. Some 55% of all car crashes in which drivers fell asleep involve people under age 26, according to the National Institutes of Health's National Center on Sleep Disorders Research in Bethesda, Md.

In a report issued earlier this year, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) in Washington says that the total average sleep time during the school week decreases from 7 hours and 42 minutes for 13-year-olds to 7 hours and 4 minutes for 19-year-olds. At the same time, teens' needs for sleep actually increase.

Studies show that while fifth and sixth graders can be wide awake all day after about nine hours' sleep, teenagers need 10 hours to be alert all day long, says Simon. "The average teenager gets about six hours' sleep, so he's sleep-depriving himself completely," he says. Other researchers put the necessary amount of sleep for teens at about 9 hours and 15 minutes a night.

In addition, high-school-age children appear to undergo a shift in their biological 'body clock,' which tells them when to rise and go to bed, he says: "There's some evidence that teenagers' biological clock may be programmed to start turning off later at night and turn on later in morning." According to the National Sleep Foundation report, studies have shown that the typical high school student's natural bedtime is 11 p.m. or later.

Teenagers' sleep problems are aggravated by the schedules they keep, says Simon. "In high school, socialization starts, and parents start allowing children to go to football games and go out afterward, and then they let them sleep in on Saturday mornings." On Saturdays, the children will wake up at 10 a.m. and go outside, and the natural light reinforces the message to the brain that this is the "starting time" for the day, he says.