Later teen bedtimes tied to school problems and distress

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Later teen bedtimes tied to school problems and distress

By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - One quarter of adolescents go to bed after 11:30 on school nights, according to a new U.S. study, which also finds those kids tend to perform worse in school and to have greater emotional distress than peers who go to bed earlier. "If teens' sleep patterns are in conflict with their natural circadian rhythms, then that also has repercussions on cognitive function and emotional regulation as well as potential health consequences," said Dr. Judith Owens, director of Sleep Medicine at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC, who was not involved in the study. It's estimated that between 45 percent and 85 percent of sixth-to-12th graders sleep less than the recommended nine hours on school nights, according to the report in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The researchers used information from the first two Waves (1994-1995 and 1996) to study the bedtimes of 2,700 teens during the school year and during summer recess.

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