Wendy Troxel: Why school should start later for teens
Wendy Troxel specializes in behavioral treatments for insomnia and other sleep disorders. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
is fast asleep in his bed,
deep sleep of a teenager.
shake the poor boy awake,
like ripping off a Band-Aid,
just to rouse her sleeping teen.
on her son's head
of the sleep he desperately needs
biological clock tells him he's ready,
of his dreams --
with learning, memory consolidation
that's being deprived of sleep.
American teenagers is an epidemic.
the eight to 10 hours of sleep per night
and pediatricians.
my kid's getting eight hours,"
the minimum recommendation.
getting a C on your report card.
contributing to this epidemic,
from getting the sleep they need
around 7:30am or earlier,
medical organizations recommend
start no earlier than 8:30am.
have a direct effect on how much --
American teenagers are getting.
teenagers and their parents
against their own bodies.
in their biological clock,
and when we feel most sleepy.
in the release of the hormone melatonin.
melatonin until around 11pm,
we see in adults or younger children.
at 6am is the biological equivalent
when I have to wake up at 4am,
teenagers feel every single school day.
that we chalk up to being a teenager --
laziness, depression --
of chronic sleep deprivation.
battling chronic sleep loss,
is consuming large quantities of caffeine
of tired but wired youth.
start times know
of dramatic brain development,
higher order thinking processes,
and good judgment.
of brain activity that's responsible
and often risky behaviors
to us parents of teenagers.
get the sleep they need,
and behaviors suffer
behavioral signs that mimic ADHD.
go well beyond the classroom,
of the mental health problems
from LA Unified School District,
to have used alcohol in the past month.
30,000 high school students,
for each hour of lost sleep,
in feeling sad or hopeless,
in teen suicide attempts.
are at increased risk
that plague our country,
heart disease and diabetes.
of putting a sleep-deprived teen,
or less of sleep per night
alcohol content above the legal limit.
of later start times.
with that kind of certainty.
with later start times get more sleep.
that if schools start later,
by 25 percent in one district.
they do better academically.
for reducing the achievement gap.
in math and reading
by one-third fewer students,
in the classroom
more pleasantness from our teens,
failed to heed this call?
start times goes something like this:
start times for teenagers?
so they're ready for the real world!"
to the parent of a two-year-old,
many logistical challenges.
that come up in district after district,
we have to work through.
for our children,
no earlier than 8:30am.
who have made this change,
are often unfounded
benefits for student health
to set our clocks back by an hour
extra hour of sleep,
to wake up naturally,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Wendy Troxel - Sleep researcherWendy Troxel specializes in behavioral treatments for insomnia and other sleep disorders.
Why you should listen
Dr. Wendy Troxel is a Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist at RAND and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in behavioral treatments for insomnia and other sleep disorders across the lifespan. Her research is funded by the National Heart Lung Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. Troxel's research focuses on the interface between sleep, social environment and health, as well as the implications for public policy. She is considered the leading authority on how sleep affects and is affected by close relationships.
Troxel has received several awards and honors for her research from national and international scientific societies, and her work has been published in top-tier medical and psychological journals. Her research has been widely cited in the national and international media, including print and television interviews on CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, MSNBC and CNN, and she has a regular blog on Huffington Post. Her research on sleep was also featured in two best-selling books: Arianna Huffington's Sleep Revolution and David Randall's Dreamland, and she was a featured expert in the National Geographic documentary Sleepless in America. She has published several highly influential RAND reports on sleep loss in the US military and the global economic implications of sleep loss. She recently was one of the co-organizers and presenters at the first-ever national conference on Adolescent Sleep, Health, and School Start Times, and she will serve as guest editor on an upcoming special issue in the journal Sleep Health on adolescent sleep and school start times.
Wendy Troxel | Speaker | TED.com