I’ve known about this for quite some time – teens developing brains are naturally off-cycle time-wise from the rest of us. I remember, back when, when it was quite easy to sleep late – like all morning long on a weekend or holiday if nothing was scheduled. So when the President and Dean of Liberty Harbor, Dr. Julianne Cooper, was on GrokTALK! two weeks ago to talk about education in general, she mentioned that Liberty Harbor starts at 9am because of this specific reason:
The Science of Sleepy Teenagers
“Making teens start school in the morning is ‘cruel,’ brain doctor claims.” So declared a British newspaper headline in 2007 after a talk I gave at an academic conference. One disbelieving reader responded: “This man sounds brain-dead.”
That was a typical reaction to work I was reporting at the time on teenage sleep patterns and their effect on performance at school. Six years on, there is growing acceptance that the structure of the academic day needs to take account of adolescent sleep patterns. The latest school to adopt a later start time is the UCL Academy in London; others are considering following suit.
So what are the facts about teenage slumber, and how should society adjust to these needs?
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