Adolescence - Sleep Throughout Life: Sleep Disorders

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Adolescence

In contrast, adolescents are noted for their daytime drowsiness. Except for infancy, adolescence is the most rapid period of body growth and development. Although teenagers need about an hour more sleep than they did as young children, most of them actually sleep an hour or so less. Parents usually blame teenagers' busy schedule of activities for their grogginess and difficulty awakening in the morning. However, the problem may also be biological. One study indicated that some adolescents might have delayed sleep phase syndrome, where they are not sleepy until well after the usual bedtime and cannot wake at the time required for school, producing conflicts between parents and sleepy teenagers as well as with secondary schools, which usually open earlier than elementary schools. It is unknown whether this phase shift occurs primarily as a physiological event or as a response to abnormal light exposure.

Last updated:	January 23, 2007