The fact that teenagers need more sleep is not news. It is well known that with puberty, teens’ internal clocks shift. They naturally want to stay up later at night and sleep longer in the morning. Many teens need as much as 9 hours of sleep per night, but most teen’s average about 6.5 hours. Couple this with the fact that many high schools shifted to earlier start times for students and the result is sleepy students. In addition, teens have more responsibility due to jobs, sports and social life than younger students. With teenagers, lack of sleep has cumulative effects. By the end of the week, they can be truly sleep-deprived.
According to a 2006 survey by the National Sleep Foundation, fatigued drivers cause 100,000 auto accidents a year and over half of the drivers in those accidents are aged 16-25. The survey also noted that 28 % of the high school students surveyed fell asleep at school and 51% drove while drowsy.
A study of 10,000 Kentucky students in grades 6-12 looked at sleep habits and daytime functioning – including auto mishaps. The surveys were completed twice, first in 1998 when the school day began at 7:30 am and again in 1999 when the start time was moved to 8:30 am. While there are limitations to the study, there was a 16.5% decrease in auto mishaps associated with the 8:30 am start time. In addition, the number of students getting at least 8 hours of sleep per night rose from 35.7% to 50%.
The Top 5 Reasons for Teens to Get Enough Sleep
Drowsy drivers can crash their cars.
Drowsy teens react more slowly and perform worse in sports than well-rested teens.
Drowsy teens do poorly in school and have more problems socially.
Drowsy teens have problems making good decisions.
Drowsy teens don’t look their best.
Retrieved from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/sleep/aaw/brochure.pdf