Good piece today in on BBC about how sleep and teens:
Teenage pupils should be given an extra two hours in bed
to boost their learning abilities, a Tyneside head teacher has urged.
Dr Paul Kelley, of
Monkseaton High School in North Tyneside, said continuous early starts created
"teenage zombies" in the classroom. He said research showed allowing
teenagers to begin lessons at 11am had a "profound impact" on
learning. Dr Kelley has already pioneered shorter lessons at the
school.Research suggests teenagers' brains are wired differently to those of
adults and work two hours behind adult time, he said. Memory tests performed on
Monkseaton pupils by neuroscientist Russell Foster, chair of circadian
neuroscience at Brasenose College, Oxford, showed the students' brains worked
better in the afternoon. This suggested young people's body clocks may
shift as they begin their teens - meaning teenagers got up later not because
they were lazy, but because they were biologically programmed to do so. Dr
Kelley said depriving teenagers of sleep could have an impact on their mental
and physical health as well as their education. He said evidence had shown
rousing teenagers from their beds early resulted in abrupt mood swings,
increased irritability, depression, weight gain and reduced immunity to disease.
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