Late to bed, and late to rise … makes your teenager healthy and wise. This is the finding of a University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) study released on Thursday.
”… forcing teenagers to bed early, or getting them up early in the morning, is contrary to their natural biological clock,” Wits’ Dial-a-Bed Sleep Laboratory said in a statement.
According to the university’s sleep experts teenagers often got less sleep than they needed because they tend to fall asleep later at night and wake up later in the morning. This is caused by their internal make-up.
In a South African study, teenagers reported sleeping on average just over seven hours a night on school nights — insufficient sleep for this age group.
”As a result, South African teenagers and probably younger children too, are more likely to be sleepy during the school day, which may negatively affect their academic performance and future prospects,” the scientists said.
Some schools in Israel and the United States of America delayed their school starting times to accommodate this natural delay, and scholars performed better at school.
Lack of sleep negatively affects attentiveness in class and leads to poorer academic achievements.
A survey recently published in the journal Sleep, revealed that 11- to 15-year-olds who reported low school achievement, greater absenteeism and low school enjoyment, reported higher levels of daytime sleepiness and reduced total sleep times compared to children with better school-related achievements. – Sapa