Snooze alarm

[cactuswatcher]

How much sleep did you get in high school? A group calling itself the "National Sleep Foundation" has decided that kids from age 11 to 17 need 9 hours of sleep a night. Now I have to agreed that 11 year-olds could certainly use that much. But, I have to question whether these people are doing science or just going through the motions and announcing their pronouncements to the press as a way of making themselves look important. I don't question that there are more kids falling asleep in class now than there were back when I was in high school. With more mothers needing to work, parental control isn't what it used to be. But, you have to understand that sleep is as much about self-control as parental control. There are more kids left to their own supervision on their sleep hours, so more kids are having trouble. But is it actually a growing problem as this group claims, or one that's actually reached a plateau that won't change much unless society changes again?

It's not as if there weren't always problems with some kids not sleeping enough. I remember a few kids telling me they got four or five hours sleep a night in my high school days. Frankly it showed. Kids did fall asleep from exhaustion in high school in those days, and it got worse in college when more kids were on their own.

According to this 'first-of-a-kind' study 17 year olds-average about 7 hours a night. In the studies that weren't so one-of-a-kind back in my day, kids were averaging about 7 hours a night. (You can see the dramatic changing trends can't you?) But, I was a slug-a-bed and got about 8 hours a night, which seemed like plenty. Seriously, expecting a 17 year-old kid who is either drinking coffee or caffeinated soda all the time to get nine hours of sleep a night is... well... dreaming.

Comments

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

I think adolescent sleep patterns like everything else is a function of life style and how much responsibility the kids have. I worked all Saturday, so I couldn't stay up late on Friday and was sometimes too tired to stay up late on Saturday. When I did I was usually home watching TV. I scheduled my dates for a reasonable hour Friday evening or Sunday afternoon. I lived no where near any night life, so there wasn't any advantage to staying up late. Never got in the habit. On the otherhand, the term I taught night classes while I was preparing for exams in grad school I got up in time to have lunch for breakfast, regularly got a snack at the local burger joint a couple hours after teaching, and often stayed up and watched the late-late movie. Activity-wise it put the class I was teaching in the middle of the 'day' and worked out fine.

My mother always wanted me to eat more when I was a kid. Then I started running distance in high school, and the comments disappeared along with her food budget. ;o)

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Could be a function of lifestyle, but I've often had free time in my life (summers, etc) when I didn't have any structured need to be anywhere at a set time. As an adolescent, my pattern was to read until 2 or 3 and sleep until 10 or later--now I wake up at 6 or 7, no matter when I go to sleep (but I'm ready for bed at 11, no matter when I get up, even if I get an early start for travelling).

I guess the research you wrote about was the one by Carskadon? Because she's the one who wrote about the shift in circadian rhythm as well as the total amount of sleep needed.