It's a double whammy. They're not getting enough sleep to recharge their brains, and we're asking their brains to be on duty at the wrong time. |
Kids are too sleepy to learn well. They're too sleepy to be happy. And they're at great risk for such things as traffic accidents. |
Teen-agers don't need less sleep the older they get. They still need as much sleep as they did when they were pre-teens, ... We, as a society, are asking them to sleep at the wrong time. |
The 'why' questions are the hardest ones to answer in science. |
They’re sitting in the classroom, but their heads are home on their pillows. |
This can put their circadian rhythm, or biological clock, in conflict with the school bell, ... The result illustrates a critical trend: too many teens come to school too sleepy to learn. And their fatigue often leads to behavior problems that contribute to a negative overall school performance and experience. |
We've found another part of the story - the mechanism in the brain that builds up sleep pressure is working at a different rate in adolescents than in pre-pubescent children. |
When children are little, their sleep pressure rises faster so they fall asleep early, but when it's slower, like it is for teenagers, it's harder to get to sleep. |