The sleep problem
“Almost all teenagers in this country are sleep-deprived,” says Maida
Chen, M.D., associate director of the Pediatric Sleep Center at
Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center and a sleep researcher
at the University of Washington. Most modern teens get between six and
seven hours of sleep on school nights, but their bodies really require
closer to nine or 10. Research finds that during the teen years, the
body’s circadian rhythm (or internal body clock) is different from that
of younger children and adults. It tells teens to fall asleep later at
night and wake up later in the morning. “A younger child is happy to go
to bed at 8 on school nights, but starting about age 14, teens just
can’t fall asleep until closer to 10 or 11,” Chen says. She describes
this as the “circadian delayed sleep phase” and says it’s a hormonally
driven stage of life lasting into the early twenties.To read the full article click here
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