My wife and I use to argue (I mean, get into discussions) all the time when our kids lived at home about whether we should let our teenagers sleep later, or get them up to get stuff done on weekends. I was coming from the old school perspective, coming from my personal experience of my dad getting my brother and I up early on Saturdays to work around the house or go with him to workouts (he was a high school coach). My wife was saying that studies showed that teenagers need more sleep.
In the Mar 14, 2014 Dallas Morning News is an article backing up her viewpoint, “Study: Later start to day helps teens”. It seems that studies on the adolescent body clock suggest that high schools with later start times are performing better in many areas, including mental health, car crash rates, attendance, and in some cases scores on standardized tests.
I still argue they could get more sleep if they would go to bed earlier – they don’t have to get it in the morning. And I’m not sure how this will impact them when it comes to getting a job, especially if they go to college and plan to join the corporate world.
But the good news – at least for me – is that my kids are now 25 and 21. And I don’t have to worry about what time they get up anymore, because they are living on their own and have figured it out.