Since posting my story "Minefield in the Morning" over the weekend, I've had a number of reader-parents ask for more information about the recent report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. (Apparently, I'm not the only mother who struggles with an adolescent explosive device on a daily basis.)
You can read the entire report online here, but the abstract highlights the salient points:
Chronic sleep loss and associated sleepiness and daytime impairments in adolescence are a serious threat to the academic success, health, and safety of our nation’s youth and an important public health issue. Understanding the extent and potential short- and long-term repercussions of sleep restriction, as well as the unhealthy sleep practices and environmental factors that contribute to sleep loss in adolescents, is key in setting public policies to mitigate these effects and in counseling patients and families in the clinical setting. This report reviews the current literature on sleep patterns in adolescents, factors contributing to chronic sleep loss (ie, electronic media use, caffeine consumption), and health-related consequences, such as depression, increased obesity risk, and higher rates of drowsy driving accidents. The report also discusses the potential role of later school start times as a means of reducing adolescent sleepiness.
It's this last bit that seems to be in our control — or, at least, in the control of our school boards.
Here are some of the specific findings:
... middle school students with a delayed start time of 1 hour for just 1 week performed better than the earlier-starting comparison group on tests requiring attention.
... delaying school start times in 1 community in Kentucky decreased the average [car] crash rate for teenaged drivers by 16.5%, while the state as a whole increased by 7.8% in the same time period.
Students at later-starting middle schools report later rise times, more total sleep on school nights, less daytime sleepiness, less tardiness, fewer attention/concentration difficulties, and better academic performance compared with middle school students at earlier-starting schools.
A variety of associated factors were cited, including adolescent biology, ingestion of caffeine and use of electronic media. But, the overall take-away is that teenagers need more sleep and need to sleep later into the morning.
So, if science is so absolutely on the side of altering school hours (and this isn't news, btw), why have we all resisted?
For many working parents (including my husband and myself), a later start time would be inconvenient. As it is, my husband does a quick drive-by drop-off that cuts his own arrival at the office very short.
Then there's that all-American work ethic. Y'know? "Early to bed, early to rise ... etc. etc." Well, suffice it to say, Ben Franklin wasn't parenting a teen in 2014. One of the things the AAP is trying to communicate is that teens sleeping later (and we're talking until 7:30 a.m., not noon) isn't a matter of laziness. It's a matter of biology.
But, the biggest reason behind the resistance is sports. In addition to seven or so hours of class, many students participate in athletic teams and clubs. Do the math and you'd find that making the day start an hour later would push these activities into the evening.
So in essence, sports, which are supposed to make our teenagers healthier, keep them from getting enough sleep which would, in essence, make them healthier.
What a tangled teenage web we weave. And don't even get me started on how this country abandons all reason (not to mention law and order) to worship at the altar of sports. Trust me (and ask my husband and daughter if you don't believe it), we don't want to go there.
So, despite studies and recommendations, I don't see things changing any time soon. For the next two years (at least), my daughter and I will have to agree that getting up early is simply another necessary evil. Like trips to the dentist. And summer homework. And SAT prep. And kale.
Nothing to do about it. Nothing to complain about. It's just ...
You'd be tired too, parenting such a tired teen.
If you enjoyed this post, I invite you to order a copy of my new book Lovin' the Alien at www.lovinthealien.com.
The words "sleep deprivation" mean something very different to me now than they did sixteen years ago. (I'm awestruck, as I am so often these days, by the idea that I've been a mother for that many years.)
In 1997, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Ten fingers, ten toes, perfectly normal in every way. You know those exceptional babies who sleep through the night practically from day one? That was her ...
Not!
We had late nights and early mornings, erratic midday naps and 2:00 a.m. feedings. By month six (MONTH SIX!), I was so perpetually tired that I briefly fell asleep driving in the Sumner Tunnel on my way into the office one morning. What can I say, the light was dim, the traffic barely moving. Luckily, a rather impatient Boston driver behind me sounded his horn before I ran into the tunnel's wall. Yikes.
That particular wake-up call (yes, pun intended, um, sorry) convinced me to try Dr. Ferber's infamous CIO or "cry it out" method. Through progressively longer intervals, you train your baby to "self-comfort." This means listening to them cry and resisting the urge (deep-rooted, instinctive, frrrrkin' primal, maternal urge) to go in. I lay with a pillow over my head through two of the longest nights of my life.
Sure enough, my daughter slept through the third and has done so ever after. My own sleep deprivation, happily, was a thing of the past.
That was then. This is now.
In our house these days, the person suffering from sleep deprivation is my now teenage daughter. Between endless amounts of homework, studying for exams, after school jobs and activities, and a minimal attempt at a social life, she doesn't have enough hours in the day. Sure, she has been known to procrastinate a bit (who hasn't?). But, compared to her peers, she's remarkably focused. It doesn't seem to matter. There is quite simply too much to do.
Add to this the fact that teens biologically need more sleep than adults. Everyone from the National Sleep Foundation to the Mayo Clinic asserts this — in no uncertain terms. In fact, it isn't just the quantity that's important for developing adolescents. It's also when they go to sleep. Unlike younger children or adults, their natural biorhythms and body temperature don't allow them to go to bed early. They naturally tire some time around or after 11:00 pm.
Here's a typical dialogue in our house:
Teen: I'm soooooooo tired.
Parent: You need to go to bed earlier.
Teen: That soooooooo won't help.
No matter how much it may pain me to admit it, my daughter's right. On the odd chance that her schoolwork was actually done by 8:00 or 9:00, it wouldn't solve the problem. She would lie awake and still be exhaustedly unable to get up at 6:30 the next day.
And, that's the other issue. Teens need more sleep. Teens don't tire until late evening. Do the math ... high school classes that start before 8:00 am are not going to make for a success story. Neither are early-morning standardized tests, like last week's PSATs at 7:45. Recent studies have proven that scores go up when teens get up later.
Well, duh!
This is what kills me. The science is there. Sleep deprivation is not just an inconvenience. It's damaging and dangerous (heck, it's recognized — and condemned — as a form of political and military torture). We're all so concerned about improving student outcomes, competing on the global stage, no child left behind ... blah, blah, blah. I propose the following:
• Adjust high school hours to better suit the needs (the actual bi-o-lo-gy) of high school students
• Decrease the amount of homework for these poor kids (I'm definitely of the "longer school day" school of thought myself)
• Schedule standardized tests like PSATs and SATs at hours when students are at their peak performance (hint, that would not mean at dawn)
To me this is all common sense. Then again, as Voltaire and Horace Greeley both observed ...
"Common sense is not so common."
If you enjoyed this post, order a copy of my new book Lovin' the Alien at www.lovinthealien.com.
Over the weekend, all of my Facebook friends were buzzing about daylight saving time. Most people were looking forward to the change, planning to enjoy those extra hours of afternoon sun, and thinking of it as the first step toward longer days and warmer weather ahead.
I was in a distinct minority. As far as I was concerned, we could have left things just the way they were.
Don't get me wrong, I like sunshine too. But I like it in the morning. In fact, I hate getting up in the dark. And that's exactly what I'll be doing for the next several weeks. Thanks a lot, daylight saving time!
I always assumed that daylight saving time was a throw-back to a more agricultural era. (No wonder I never appreciated it. For the record, there's nothing agricultural about my life except when I go to Whole Foods and pay too much for organic produce.) However, thanks to a little resource called Wikipedia (a.k.a. "If it's on the Internet, it must be true"), I now know that daylight saving time was proposed in 1895 and implemented for the first time during World War I. An early objective was to limit usage of incandescent lighting. With modern energy systems, this is no longer necessary.
So why do I have to wake up in the dark?
I am now and have always been a morning person. Call me crazy, but I like my mornings to look like ... well ... mornings. Plus, I have a particularly good reason to bemoan setting the clock forward this year.
You see, I am the mother of a teenager.
Like every teenager I've ever met, my daughter is perpetually sleep-deprived. Between hours of homework, hours of horseback riding, and hours (and hours and hours and hours) of texting, she is always tired. Under the best possible morning circumstances (a carefree vacation day, bright skies, bacon frying downstairs in the kitchen), my daughter has a hard time getting up. Prying her out of bed before the sun has even risen?
Can you say, "mission impossible?"
Here is our typical morning ...
6:15 am Her first alarm goes off
6:16 am She hits "snooze"
6:30 am Her second alarm goes off
6:31 am She emerges from her room and moans, "Mo-o-o-om, I'm so-o-o-o-o-o tired. Can I have five more minutes?" I answer, "No." She moans louder and shuffles back to her room, where she will stare blankly for several minutes before finally getting dressed, finally (kinda sorta) making her bed, and finally coming downstairs for breakfast and a ride to school. Often there are last minute emergencies and firedrills — a ripped sweater, a misplaced permission slip, money needed for a rendezvous at Orange Leaf. If she can be ready by 7:00, my husband can take her. Otherwise, I have to.
Daylight saving time won't change much about this little ritual, except that it will be that much darker; she will be that much more tired.
So, I Googled "teens and daylight saving time" to find some advice. Here's what I found:
Tip 1: In preparation for changing the clocks Sunday, don't let your teen sleep in on Saturday. Get her/him up by 8:00 am.
Ha ha ha.
Tip 2: Encourage your teen to try relaxation techniques like yoga or meditation.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Tip 3: Insist that your teen turn off all electronics (mobile phone, PC, TV) thirty minutes before bedtime.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Sorry, but I'm laughing too hard to type now. Good night!
