New
survey sounds the alarm: Nation's kids need more
sleep
Tuesday, March 28, 2006 • BY
PEGGY O'CROWLEY • Star-Ledger
Staff
It's a daily ritual at the Gower
household in Lebanon.
Bobby's alarm goes off at 6:15 a.m. The
15-year-old then promptly hits the snooze button. His
mother, Patti, comes to the bedroom and spends the next
half-hour trying to get him up so he won't miss the 7:09
a.m. bus to North Hunterdon High School.
"He gets out of bed about twenty
(minutes) to seven, with me screaming at him to hurry up,"
she said, laughing. "He's lucky he's never missed the
bus."
Similar scenes are played out in homes
across the country each morning, as sleep- deprived
adolescents struggle to wake up.
The reason is they don't get enough
sleep, according to the 2006 Sleep in America Poll released
today by the National Sleep Foundation.
The survey, which included more than
1,500 adults and their adolescent children ages 11 to 17,
found that sleep deprivation also can lead to poor grades,
inattentive driving and depression, said Jodi Mindell,
associate director of the Sleep Center at the Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia, and a co- chairwoman of the
poll.
Experts say adolescents need nine hours
of sleep a night. However, 45 percent of the middle- and
high school students polled said they sleep fewer than eight
hours on a school night. And more than one quarter said they
nod off in school at least once a week.
Just 10 percent of adults believe their
children do not get enough sleep.
Sleep deprivation increases with age,
according to the survey. For example, sixth- graders
reported getting an average of 8.4 hours sleep a night,
while high school seniors said they get by with just under
seven hours.
At least one of the reasons adolescents
don't get enough sleep is not their fault, said Mindell.
Hormone changes cause a two-hour shift in circadian rhythm
(the body's internal clock), Mindell said. So they are
naturally more alert later in the day.
More than half of high school seniors (54
percent) said they usually go to bed after 11 p.m. and have
to be up at 6:30 a.m.
Also to blame for sleep deprivation is
technology and homework overload, fueled by higher caffeine
consumption, said Susan Zafarlotfi, clinical director of the
Institute for Sleep and Wake Disorders at the Hacken sack
University Medical Center.
Zafarlotfi, a sleep expert who was not
part of the study, said that in the last decade there has
been a 10 percent increase in the number of children she
sees at the clinic.
Electronic gadgets compete with
teenagers' sleep, she said. "You can be up at 11 p.m. and
talking to someone from Japan on the computer. I had to take
my 12-year-old's cell phone at night because he was under
the covers text-messaging his friends," she said.
Only 3 percent of the adolescents sur
veyed said they do not have a television, computer, music
player or telephone in their room. Most said they watch TV,
use the computer or talk on the phone during the hour
leading up to bedtime.
Caffeine consumption also has increased.
Seventy-five percent of adolescents in the study said they
usually drink one caffeinated beverage a day. Thirty-one
percent said they drink two.
Homework and extracurricular activities
take up more hours than ever, too. So, many adolescents use
the weekends to catch up on rest, which further disrupts
sleep patterns, say experts.
Alex Dolce, an 18-year-old senior, gets
seven hours of sleep a night during the school week and then
sleeps until noon on weekends.
He has a plan for next year, when he will
attend Towson University on a lacrosse scholarship. "I'm
really cranky in the morning. I'll schedule all my classes
for later in the day," he said, laughing.
One solution to sleep deprivation would
be to move high school start times an hour later, said
Margarita Dubocovich, a neuro pharmacologist at Northwestern
University who, in an unrelated study, looked at the sleep
patterns of students at a suburban Chicago high
school.
The teens kept sleep diaries showing that
they lost an average of 10 hours of recommended sleep each
school week. They were administered a test when they first
arrived at school and then given the same test later in the
afternoon. The students scored better in the later test, she
said.
Only a few high schools around the coun
try -- including districts in Minnesota, Washington State,
Massachusetts and Virginia -- have changed their starting
times. It is be lieved no district in New Jersey has altered
starting times.
Megan Smith's son Ian, 15, and daughter
Maggie, 17, have to leave their Freylinghuy sen home at 6:30
a.m. to make it to Pope John XXIII High School in
Sparta.
In order to get their nine hours of
sleep, they'd have to get to bed by 9 p.m., said Smith, who
has two other children, ages 11 and 19.
"I don't think you'll find many teenagers
in bed by that time."
The National Sleep Foundation is
promoting its adopt-a-school program in which experts come
to schools and talk to students about the importance of
sleep. Dr. Zafarlotfi said she would be willing to conduct
educational sessions at area schools. She can be reached at
(201) 996-3732.
Peggy O'Crowley covers family issues. She may be reached
at pocrowley@starledger.com or (973) 392-5810.
© 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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