Late to bed, late to rise – teenagers prefer to function as night owls

Getting teenagers out of bed is no easy task. Numerous studies indicate that at the onset of puberty, adolescents become more ‘evening typed’, preferring later bedtimes and wake times.

In the Journal of Adolescence, a report by Swinburne researchers Dr Suzanne Warner, Dr Greg Murray and Dr Denny Meyer details the sleep patterns of 310 Australian senior school students, including information surrounding their sleep quality, mood, daytime functioning, grades and circadian preference. By comparing patterns for holiday and school-term, the researchers believed they could capture a teenager’s ideal sleep schedule.

Students get significantly less sleep when they are in school term – roughly one hour and 17 minutes less a night than when on holiday. They also have to wake up considerably earlier – about two hours and 30 minutes sooner. In contrast, the students tended to adopt a later sleep/wake routine during the holidays.

The research showed that ideally students need about eight hours and 45 minutes of sleep, but during the holidays they tend to get about nine hours and 12 minutes. During school term, they typically get less than eight hours.

As a result, students overall reported more depressed moods, increased feelings of unhappiness, impaired daytime functioning, sleepiness during the day, irritation with others, problems controlling emotions and increased complaints of lethargy.

Results provide further support that sleep is a crucial aspect of adolescent health and well being – and sadly, many young people are obtaining insufficient or poor sleep quality during the school term.

With day-to-day functioning compromised, the task of learning becomes even more challenging for teenagers – especially those that are ‘night owls’.

(Source: Journal of Adolescence: Lea Kivivali: Swinburne University: April 2008)