Blame science – and not your teenager – if they’re slow starters in the morning.
Teenagers just can’t get eight hours of sleep if high schools starts much before 8 a.m.
University of Minnesota researcher Kyla Wahlstrom said that’s because adolescents go through something called the sleep phase shift.
“Teenagers are basically unable to fall asleep on a regular basis every night, say, before 10:45 or 11,” Wahlstrom said. “It’s just a biologic almost impossibility.”
It’s why Wahlstrom and others said high schools should start later to allow students to get eight hours of sleep. She studied 9,000 high school students in three states.
