Professor Mary Carskadon from Bradley Hospital Sleep Laboratory, Brown University has found a theory that may be the reason for teens going to bed late. Study has found that teens are not interested to go to bed until 11 PM and they get up early in the morning resulting in a reduction in sleeping hours. Professor Carskadon has published her work in the Journal American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Researchers has found that as they children’s grow up they still don’t have the pressure of their parents who insist on them to go to bed early resulting in a reduction of chemically driven pressure leading to sleep building up more slowly. Study was conducted in 13 boys and girls between 10 and 16; seven were preteens, the rest teens. All underwent 36 hours of sleep deprivation in a lab as brainwaves were monitored. The research has also found that the hormone melatonin which is responsible for regulating sleep is activated very late in the evening in teens and stops production early in the morning leading to sleep deprivation.Professor Mary Carskadon said, “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 and the results of the study show that 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 and the researchers feel that the higher tolerance for prolonged waking may prepare children for adult lifestyles and for performing tasks under sleep deficits that are common in adults of modern societies.”
